We all want the same thing
by blackbubbledancer
Summary: Byakuya and Rukia lead two fast paced different lives that tend to cross paths but are they both searching for the same thing as they go light speed. AU & OOC
1. Chapter 1

**So this story was actually inspired by one of my stripper friends who recently had an encounter with a friend she had not seen in a long time and how odd it was for both of them. I'm not sure why this pair came to mind , but it did so I wrote it out to get it out of my head .**

**This story IS AU and IS OOC **

**Hope you all enjoy it for what it is **

We all want to live, we all wanna learn

How to love without getting burned

We want to be loved, are we good enough ?

Yeah , Yeah

All my stripper friends

All my X-boy friends

We all want the same things.

Rukia walked out of the club in her favorite pair of grey oversized sweat pants and form fitting cotton black long sleeved sixty nine shirt. Her face had been stripped of all the make-up she had been wearing and she had pulled her hair up into a messy pony tail due to all of the hair spray that she had doused her hair in to keep it in place.

The cold air felt good on her face after she had been in the hot sticky club all night. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath of fresh clean air as she pressed the button to the cross walk . The signal dinged for her to go as the little green man flashed . Looking around to make sure the cross walk was clear she jogged to the other side of the street.

On nights like this she didn't mind that she chose to park so far away from the club it was clear and bright outside so it made it an easy walk back into the business district where she parked her car. She could very easily park in the back of the club she just didn't want to have to deal with some freak finding out what she drove and meet her by her car after her shift. She had the happen to her when she first started working there and had to call the cops on the orange haired freak and get a restraining order. She involuntarily shivered as she walked into the parking lot she parked her car besides her car didn't stand out that much in the parking lot of this building.

Narrowing her eyes she frowned normally at this time of night the parking lot was empty no sane person was at work at two am , but sitting in front of the building was a black Porche 911 Carrera GTS Cabriolet and a silver Mercedes AMG SLK55. Pushing her back pack up on her shoulder a little more she scanned the lot for the owners of the car , perhaps they were people just like her looking for an inconspicuous place to park there nice cars so they wouldn't get messed with. Picking up her pace she jogged up clicking the button that started and unlocked her car. Taking one last look around her eyes passed by the glass doors and paused for the briefest of moments as she saw two extremely attractive men in expensive suits blatantly staring at her. And why shouldn't they it always caused people to stair when they saw a twenty something in sweats stepping into a Lamborghini Gallardo.

Pausing as she opened the door she turned back to the two men giving them a sly wink she blew them a kiss. Laughing she closed the door put the car in gear letting it purr. She loved that noise it made her feel like her undesirable work paid off , then sped off.

****

Sheiba Kaien's jaw dropped as he watched the tiny sweat clad girl whink and blow them a kiss before speeding off in a Lambo.

Looking back over to his college Kuchiki Byakuya he smirked with a little snort.

"Is she one of yours Kuchiki."

Byakuya snorted at the girls boldness and shook his head. " Do you think I would buy one of mine one of those."

The teal eyed man shrugged nonchalantly. "I don't know you bought the last one a pretty diamond."

The grey eyed man chuckled darkly . " It was only because she gave a great blow job and that was a two thousand dollar diamond not a hundred thousand dollar car."

Kaien arched his eyebrow with some amusement. " I didn't know you were that giving."

They both watched as the Lamborghini speed through a red light before turning out of sight..

"It was my paralegal I couldn't leave her high and dry she does do my grunt work I had to repay her somehow or she could fuck with our cases ."

Kaien Ahhed now in understanding " I don't know how you do it man. I did that once and had to fire my secretary after a two months because she got to be a pain in the ass with her insesive needy whining, and I even took her out a few times afterwards."

Kaien watched Byakuya give him a board look. " it's because your too nice."

He hmmed and shrugged again. " One of us has to or we would have no clients."

" I'm extremely charming." Byakuya said in his defense

" Charming yes, Nice no." Kaien laughed. "You could convince someone the air in their water bottle was blessed by the pope, but you couldn't be truly nice if it killed you. I don't think I have seen you be remotely nice since University."

" I was nice by not firing my paralegal."

Kaien tucked his thumbs in his back pockets. "No you just didn't want to get sued for sexual harassment."

Byakuya opened his mouth to try to refute his partners logic but he couldn't.

"Let's face Kuchiki nether one of us are what people would consider nice but we get the job done." He let out a yaw " But morning comes early ."

The grey eyed man nodded "Night Sheiba."

Kaien flicked his wrist in a wave and headed off the his Proche

****

Byakuya set his cruise control at 90 miles per hour as he got on the freeway and leaned back in his seat. The girl in the Lamborghini had caught his attention, she wasn't normal that was for sure how could a girl that looked like that afford a car like that. It wasn't even looks it was her age it was her everything. Honestly she looked to nice to own a car like that.

After she blew them the kiss Byakuya could see right through her it was a big act . He had seen the girl cross the street he had seen the peaceful expression on her face with a tinge of nervousness . People that nervous didn't boldly blow kiss's to strange men.

Clicking the opener on the gate to his house he pulled his car up into the drive way and frowned as he heard the beep the car made as he locked it. It reminded him of the beeping noise the girls car made and made him realize he had been thinking about her his entire thirty minute drive home.

For some reason curiosity was really getting the better of him and he had to know who she was .

Walking into his house Byakuya yawned and knew he would pay for this later on this morning when he trudged into work at six am , but she looked so much like Hisanna it was uncanny and more than slightly disturbing. Walking blindly through his house he made his way to his office and sat himself down at his computer. Luck for him he had access to all of the security camera's that where posted throughout the building and the quickest way to find someone was through the license plate number. So typing in the time he saw the car at first he found the gorgeous pearl car in the lot and zoomed in on the plate number. Switching data bases he typed her number into the DMV records and came up with the name Yamamoto , Rukia.

Leaning back in his chair he stared at the screen in disbelieve she could not be Genryusai Shigekuni Yamamoto's daughter. He was the most powerful lawyer in all of Japan and he happened to know the man's only daughter in the biblical sense, he only had one daughter Byakuya was sure of this one. Besides she looked nothing like Matsumoto there was absolutely no way this little thing could possibly be Matsumoto's sister. Leaning back over the desk he switched data bases yet again and typed in Rukia's name again and her entire history came up. On her birth certificate it stated she was the daughter of Shizuka , Hio. That was not Yamamoto's wife , his wife of thirty years was named Yuki and he knew that for another fact than because he had gone to private school with Matsumoto since preschool and Matsumoto was older than this girl he had seen.

He looked at his computer screen and burst out laughing the old bastard had , had an affair and no one knew about it ,well he thought to himself at least he gave the girl his name. Reading further about the girl she had grown up in the middle lower class with her single mother in Tokyo having gone to public schools almost all of her life. Wow the bastard only gave her his name and nothing else that was slightly fucked up even to Byakuya's standards. Reading more he skip through the inconsequential things what he really wanted to know was how she came to own that damn car since her father was not supporting her and he had not heard of her in any of the big business arena's.

She had , had a number of jobs : a waitress , a flower shop employee, a sales clerk, a secretary at her father's firm that one made Byakuya arch his eyebrow again. However none of this could possibly let her afford a Lamborghini. Finally he found what he was looking for she currently worked at Lux the ultra exclusive gentleman's club, job title dancer.

His eyes just about popped out of his head there was no way she could be a dancer , she was cute that was for sure but with the way she was dressed she did not fit the profile. The only reason why he knew this was because he had dated dancers and even in there off time they were decked out in name brands and jewelry that would make most women jealous. But she must be good at what she did or she would never have been able to afford that car. He would have to see this one if he were really going to believe it which was going to be odd because he had not been to a gentleman's club since University. Doing more research he wanted to make one hundred percent sure she was not related to Hisanna in any way shape or form before he even began to pursue this because he could not drag himself through her hell again. To his extreme relief she was not related to Hanazawa Hisanna , Hisanna and grown up in northern Japan to completely different parents and had a pedigree that dated back to the edo period and was almost as old as his.

Taking a deep breath he looked out his window and the sun was starting to come up and honestly it didn't matter much to Byakuya he was more than used to late nights or not sleeping at all he had been like this since he was a young man and Hisanna would drive him up a wall and he could not get any sleep because she had kicked him out of bed for some stupid reason or another. As he tightened his tie to a new suit his heart couldn't help but constrict . The divorce had been an ugly one in the end he it had come down to the fact she had never really loved him . They had loved each other like crazy when they got out of school , but somehow they grew apart he still loved her like crazy but she couldn't stand him in the end. She had become bitter and jaded and tried to take him for everything he had and he didn't want to put up a fight so he paid off everything and gave it to her. Slipping back into his Mercedes he really did hope she had found what she was looking for and was happy. A wave of pain when through him that he did not have the luxury of having , shaking his head he pulled into his spot at work straightened his coat and prepared for his day.

Ascending from the elevator to the twelfth floor he ran smack into his partner who gave him a knowing a smirk.

"You couldn't help it could you Kuchiki."

Byakuya gave him a dead pan look.

"couldn't help what Kaien?"

The other man laughed and steadied his coffee so it wouldn't slosh all over the place .

"You looked up that girl from this morning."

Brushing passed Kaien cooly he started to walk back to his office.

" I don't know what your talking about."

The other man quickend his pace to catch up to Byakuya . "She looked to much like Hisanna for you not to , besides your wearing white socks and black pants."

Byakuya looked down at his pants and cursed.

"You know her life story don't you ."

Byakuya opened the door to his office and let Kaien follow him in. " I know she is not related to Hisanna."

Kaien smirked behind Byakuya . " So where does she work.

"Lux." Byakuya could say before he realized what he was say because he was so engrossed in the file on his desk.

The other man let out a whistle. " She is a stripper.

Turning around to the other man Byakuya lean on his desk and crossed his legs at the ankle. "it didn't specify."

Kaien leaned against the door jam giving Byakuya a compassionate look. " Hisanna isn't coming back Byakuya. You could have given her the world and it wouldn't have been enough in the end.

"Kaien we have had this discussion more times than I can count."

A cell phone buzzed and both men quickly looked down at there's to see who's it was . Shaking his head his friend hit the ignore button and slipped it back into his pocket. Turning his attention back to Byakuya "and we would stop if you would move on. You can't hold on to her memories forever we both know she was amazing in University and we both know at heart she is truly a good person

"I've had enough of this conversation." He said coolly returning to his work to make the clear point he did not want to talk about Hisanna or his passed with her.

"Well buddy if you want to go and see this girl at least take me with you for moral support." Kaien winked conspiratorially. "Besides it's been a while since I have been there for moral support for my good friend."

Byakuya looked up at his friend more than annoyed "Get out of my office."

His friend chuckled as he walked out the door . "You're a good man Byakuya." He said as the door quietly clicked shut.

****

Rukia woke up and stretched out in huge plush king sized bed , she really didn't need a bed this big but it was nice to be able to stretch out and move around because she was fare from a stationary sleeper. Looking over at the alarm clock she had on her bedside table it read 3pm . Groaning she rolled over and pulled her pillow over head. It wasn't like she wasn't used to sleeping in this late . Between noon and three were her usual after a long night. But last night was an extremely long night because she didn't to bed when she got home as a matter of fact she didn't even go directly home after she pulled out of the parking lot she drove around for a good hour before she went home . She couldn't believe her actions before she got into her car she actually blew the two men kiss's she never did that especially to men of that caliber. She had a good idea of who they were but she really hoped to god that they weren't who they were because she would have looked like a complete fool seeing as they had women falling all over them on a daily basis.

Dragging herself up out of bed she slipped into her fuzzy bunny slippers and made her way to the coffee pot clicking it on waiting to smell the fresh brew of what seemed to be her life force in the mornings .At the sound of the first few drips hitting the bottom of the pot she sleepily shuffled over to her laptop to turn it on she really wanted to make sure these men were not who she thought they were.

Cuddling into her over stuffed couch she leaned back into the cushions and closed her eyes , she really meant to do it last night , but she knew if she were right she would never get any sleep and would wake up looking like a crack head if she even slept at all and that would make for an interesting night of loading up on energy drinks and feeling like she was vibrating .

She waited for the computer to finally boot up then clicked on her internet explorer. Taking in a deep shaky breath she type in Google the punched in the Kuchiki Byakuya and hit enter. She closed her eyes tightly as she knew the computer was pulling up everything it could find about that name. She did not want to see him, he was one of them men her half sister played with during university and would brag constantly about ,then throw it un Rukia's face that she would never be able to land a man like that. Even though Rukia and Rangiku were seven years apart the perfect blond never let Rukia forget what a freak she was for being accepted into university at her age and how she would easily be a freak for the rest of her life because she would always be the youngest and most invisible no matter what she did from here on out.

Biting her lip she opened her eyes slowly looking down at the screen her worst fears were confirmed one of the two men that was standing at the entrance of the building was indeed the one and only Kuchiki Byakuya . Standing in another picture with him was the other man that was there that night his name was Sheiba Kaien.

They were powerful lawyers and would undoubtedly know her bastard of a father if you would call him that . Oh well . She leaned over and set her computer on the coffee table if she were going to make herself look like an ass she couldn't have done it in front of a better person. Getting up she walked back over to the coffee pot and pored the first of more than likely many cups of coffee that day. Unfortunately curiosity was getting the better seeing as he was such a public figure now she would be able to see what he had been up to after he told her sister off in a very unique and rude way that made Rangiku question herself for many months.

Looking around the browser she of all things wikipediaed him and found out that he had finished top of his class . She was really not surprised. Had gotten married . that she was surprised about . she clicked on the name of the woman he married her name was Hisanna as her picture popped up Rukia gasped this woman looked almost exactly like her same small features , same purple eyes the only thing that was different was that this woman's smile was much tighter than Rukia's and even though at that age she was young perhaps twenty she looked a few years older than she really was ,

"Oh my god." She whispered to herself.

Still a bit shaken she clicked back to the main link and read more about the man . it turned out he was divorced the marriage hadn't lasted that long. Quickly scanning through the rest she found out he had various accolades , blah, blah, blah everything she would expect from him. Wow her sister really missed out.

As Rukia stepped into the shower never in her wildest dreams did she ever think that she would ever run into Byakuya Kuchiki again. They were world apart always had been always will be , but the odds where very small that she would ever actually talk to him.

****

Byakuya got nothing accomplished all day at work , he couldn't concentrate on one document if it killed him and if he were litigating today the client may have. In a sick way all he could do was think about that little woman in the Lamborghini .She looked so much like Hisanna, but so much softer her lips weren't so pursed and her body was a little rounder . He found himself picking out all of her imperfections from what he saw in the dark . he also found her was picking her apart as a person even though he had no idea who she really was , but what type of woman would become a stripper . Certainly no reputable one with any brains, and what else did she do to get a car like she had to be doing something shady.

But she looked like such a sweet girl standing there with a fresh face and a saucy smile it finally connected that , that smile was like one her sister would give only this girl didn't have the bravado that he older sister had.

Putting his head in his hands he let out a sad sigh because she looked just like Hisanna she looked just like the girl he knew in University.

Picking up the cell he typed in Kaien's number

.

MEET ME A LUX AT 10PM TONIGHT.

This wasn't a great idea he knew this wasn't a great idea . tapping his fingers on the table her frowned deeply but the damage was already done.

****

Kaien heard his cell phone vibrate across his desk and quietly watched it until it stopped he knew who it was already and he knew what he had to do even if it was something he wished his friend would not do to himself.

Pressing the read now button he read Byakuya's text and shook his head and responded

WILL DO BUD

Looking out the window of his hard earned corner office he took a sip of the water he had poured for himself because he was not a loud the hard stuff until most of the staff had left.

"Byakuya." He said into the nothingness.

"She is not who you think she is."

He wrote a then wrote a note to his secretary to send a dozen red roses to the Lux night club to be delivered at 8 pm to this Rukia girl as an apology to this poor girl for his friends soon to be fuck up.

He shook his head he had never known his friend had the capacity to ever be emotionally driven . Emotion was not something he had ever really seen Byakuya do . The closest thing Kaien had seen to true emotion was when the man's grandfather had died , but Byakuya had left before and one could bear witness to anything real.

Kaien didn't like this one bit the cold bastard he could deal with this was something completely different something unpredictable.

Snorting he shook his head this could be one truly amusing night to say the very least.

****

Rukia was a mess, she couldn't figure out what to wear that night , she could figure out what songs she wanted played while she was out on stage. All she could think of was seeing Byakuya Kuchiki after so many years it was almost sir real . He didn't look like the amused relaxed young man she had known when he was younger; he looked hard and cold much harder than a man of thirty should. Looking at her reflection in the mirror she silently wondered what had happened to harden him that much. Then again they were years apart he was seven years older than she was so he had been at this game of life much longer than she had.

Despite her age she had graduated high school well school in general early and unfortunately shared a dorm room with her half sister for a year in University . Matsumoto. Rukia sat back in her hard barely padded chair and stared at herself closely under the harsh florescent lights as she thought of her sister. At the time Rangiku was young beautiful and knew how to make Rukia's life a living hell. She made Rukia feel as invisible as humanly possible for so long because of what that woman said Rukia felt like an ugly little freak of a nothing.

Rukia shivered she could almost hear her half sisters voice ringing through her ears even to this day. "You're so young no one in the business world will ever take you seriously. . . . . You know you will never be able to attract a man." She could practically hear her sisters cruel laughter in her ears. "You shouldn't even try Rukia your body looks like a little boy do you honestly thing you could even attract a little boy." The words stung because she watched her sister bring in boys like , Byakuya there was a beautiful boy named Renji that her sister brought home that made Rukia's heart pound still just thinking about him . There were others but Byakuya was by far the beautiful man he sister had brought home. In his own queer way he was kind, he would indulge her sister when she was being a bitch buy her pretty things. However now that Rukia was older she didn't know if that was because he was kind or just wanted a piece of ass.

Regardless seeing him last night made her feel like she was a teenager all over again, and she didn't like it all that much . She had worked hard to get where she was at she had her own business granted she was marketing the thing she knew best which was herself. But she did model granted it was mostly for men's magazines ,but she had her own web site that people men and women alike would log onto just to see what she was doing. She did private parties' where people would pay obscene amounts of money just for her to show up and of cores what she was most known for . . . . Being a stripper. It had been that out let that got her where she was at. Dancing for one powerful man and that was all it took . He called around dropped her name and that was that.

Running her hands through her hair she closed her eyes she was lucky . Lucky or smart she didn't know but she had never let herself get into nude men's magazines and never prostituted herself out. Granted most conservative women's groups would say what she did was just as bad if not worse, but whatever they could go to hell.

"Wake up Rukia." She could feel her good friend Ise arms get thrown around her in a big hug that made Rukia smile and hug the other woman back.

"What's up sweetie?"Ise said as she adjusted her boobs in the mirror over her shoulder.

Rukia shook her head lightly still looking a little melancholy " Nothing." She smiled and picked up her curling iron to start to do her hair.

"Your beautiful." Ise kissed her on the check. "You should stop listening to what that old hag had said."

She stopped in mid curl. " How did you know I was thinking of Matsumoto?" she wrinkled her nose and looked back and up at Ise.

The taller woman smiled kindly. "Because you always get the unsure look on your face when you think of that bitch that , and we have known each other for far too long." Resting her hands on her should she looked Rukia over closely. " You know what , I think tonight is a dark green night for you. Dark green , black and tons of glitter."

This made Rukia laugh "Thank you."

Her friend quickly kissed her on top of the head where she had not attacked it with hair spray and walked away.

Finally standing Rukia looked herself over in the mirror and what she saw looked nothing like her , standing in the mirror was a confidant beautiful woman , not the unsure young woman she really was.

Leaning over she put one last thick layer of lip gloss on to make her dark red lips pop, tossing the tube on the counter she turned and quickly walked out onto the floor .

Time to make money she thought happily as she put on her Cheshire cat smile.

Sashaying out onto the floor she took in the bright lights and dark atmosphere for a long moment she watched her friends snaked through the sea of men smiling , flirting , winking , laughing doing whatever they could to make a buck so to speak.

"Hey beautiful" Rui slapped her ass playfully. He was one of the only men in existence that could get away with that and not get bitch slapped across the room.

"What's my damage tonight Rui?" She looked up at the man who scanned the crowd for a long moment.

"You my dear have been bought out for a business party for the night."

She huffed and dropped her shoulders in disappointment. " Seriously Rui" she said rather annoyed she hated being bought out when she wasn't managing herself because that meant Rui got a cut.

"It was twice our usual rate sweet cheeks." He said flatly.

This peaked Rukia's interest. " Oh , how much is this for me." She tried to sound nonchalant.

"Thirty thousand for you hunny" He looked unamused now. "They specified that only ten grand went to the house."

Rukia just choked as she looked out at the smoky room.

"You my dear tonight just made more than most people do in an entire year." He said still scanning the room.

"Thank god for capitalism." She said with a snort.

"They are over there" Rui pointed to a large private booth off to the corner of the room.

Scanning the men she really couldn't complain there was a large older man with long dark curly hair that currently had Ise in his lap. A very attractive older man with long white hair and a gentle smile , Rukia had a feeling she would like him. There was a short spiky haired boy that took Rukia off guard making her turn to Rui. " Is the short one even old enough to be here."

Her manager shrugged. " They paid enough that I don't care."

She mentally shook her head Rui's business ethics were sometimes skewed , but whatever. Looking back there were other rather self important looking men sitting around . Then Rukia saw him and it felt like someone had slammed their fist into her gut there sat a man with same grey eyes same dark silky hair same hard jaw . She couldn't do this her mind screamed.

"Okay kiddo." Rui pushed her out into the room. " Work your magic."

****

Byakuya shifted uncomfortably it had been years since he had been an establishment such as this it wasn't that he was opposed to mostly naked woman it was the exact opposite he quite enjoyed beautiful women, but it was this one woman he was waiting for , for some reason he hopped he hadn't already seen her and just didn't recognize her.

"Relax." His friend Kaien yelled over the music . " Just enjoy it, it was actually a rather good idea to get all the partners together ."

Byakuya looked around and smirked and nodded his head his friend Shunsui looked to enjoying himself immensely with a blue eyes woman who would laugh in annoyance every time he would reach for something inappropriate in fact it looked to look like a game they had started to play.

He could see each man unwind even his uptight little accountant was eyeing a small girl with her hair done up in a cute little bun, go Toshiro he smirked to himself

Byakuya leaned back into the stiff designer cough and figure four crossed his legs looking everywhere but the stage he really didn't want to see her dance in front of everyone. He did not want to think of Hisanna doing this because he knew what was going through every man's minds when they watched the girls on stage.

"Hello handsome."

He heard a female voice next to him and felt like someone had punched him and knocked the wind out of him. There she was sitting in Kaiens lap looking nothing like a fresh faced girl he watched jog across the street the night before. There sat a vixen an X rated party favor glitter and all . She was wearing almost nothing bra , g string. Thigh highs and heals and he couldn't tear his eyes away from her

He watched his friend grin stupidly as she crossed her legs giving him a cheeky smile.

"Would you like your drink filled handsome." All she had to do was smile and Kaien nodded his head like a bobble head . Uncrossing her legs she turned and straddled the man with her back to him . Kaiens eyes were glued to her ass and was rubbing his fingers trying not to touch her. She easily filled his glass twisted her body handing him back his champagne glass .

All he could do was sit there and watch the interaction coolly until her head turned to face him with a full knowing smile.

"What about you stranger you look like you could use a drink yourself."

He watched her flicker her eyes to the glass seriously then back to him "Scotch?" her words came out seriously and he merely nodded. Without any prompting she slithered off Kaiens lap bent over grabbed the glass and walked out of ear shot to the bar.

Kaien started laugh "That girl could give Hisanna a run for her money."

Byakuya glared. " It's an act don't be stupid enough to fall into it."

The other man shrugged. "We are all performing monkeys and have to do tricks. Enjoy her tonight." He grinned slyly " Or I will."

That's it Byakuya thought to himself , this truly was a bad idea . Taking a deep breath he stood to leave only to be almost nose to nose with Rukia. He watched the girl arch her eyebrow then look down at the drink in hand and back up at him.

" I wasn't fast enough?" She smirked and swirled the ice around in the glass looking into it.

"No." He heard his friend laugh good naturedly. " I think her just wanted a dance."

Byakuya could have killed his friend at that point all he wanted to do was get out of there but before he could move he felt her little hand slither into his.

"Well then." She wiggled her hips with a smile. " I think I can arrange that."

He could feel the small girls hesitation and discomfort she knew who he was he could tell as she lead him into a private room .

Gently she pushed him down on a plush bench seat , but then again he could have been knocked down with a feather.

He watched her kneel down and look up at him with a small smile as she parted his legs sliding herself up him inch my excruciating inch up him grinding her hips into his never taking her eyes away from his . Without realizing it he picked her up by the hips and set her in his lap with a still serious look. Causing her to still and look back at him with equally serious eyes.

"We know who the other is." She said coolly before she looked around then back into his eyes . "This is all make believe. You want the illusion I'm her and I want the money." Her words came out blunt and

He watched pain pass behind her cold eyes before she rolled her hips over his lap causing him exquisite pain.

**There it is , I hope it was at least enjoyable . I know it was a bit long but I didn't know if I wanted to break it up into two parts and make a story out of it . **

**I think I will leave that one up to the reviews and readers if I should go on or not **

**And who please R&R **


	2. Chapter 2

**So here is the second chapter. I honestly didn't know what kind of response I would get to the first but Im happy you all found it enjoyable and wanted more because I'm having fun writing it.**

**For an answer to rose of ice , don't feel bad for her she is awesome opossum and handled it with a smile and good humor.**

**Any who here is the next chap enjoy.**

Her words came out hard and cold and took him surprise because even though he saw a flicker of pain pass through her pretty violet eyes there was a hardness there that had quickly taken over. He could feel all the hesitation she had as she walked in with him drain from her body into a cold indifference . She had turned herself off to him and only saw money not a man. She was making damn sure he knew he was only a job just another cog in the wheel so to speak , but at the same time he was so unimportant she could take him or leave him because he was such a minuscule piece of that wheel . He didn't matter to her one way or the other because she really didn't need his money .

That should have made him feel better that she was just as indifferent as he was all the time but at the same time and he didn't know why but it stung his pride . No one had ever treated him like that, woman young and old had always thrown themselves at him .It didn't matter what age he was he had never had woman look at him with the same cold indifference he had looked at them with . It left him feeling a bit naked especially because he had never been looked at like a faceless man just a dollar sign .It almost left him with a desperate feeling to want to get her approval and break the demeanor so he could feel adored again.

This took him back a bit he would never beg or ask for approval he didn't need to he was Byakuya Kuchiki and there was nothing and he meant nothing he couldn't break down and there wasn't a woman he could not get to beg for him. This girl was no exception she was a powerful woman and much like him she was attracted to money. It looked like that was what drove her ,the next dollar because the next dollar was another step higher she could step and afford to look at men like him with that cold indifference. He looked at her closely with a smirk at this moment she held all the cards and he knew she knew that it still didn't mean he couldn't un nerve her in the process of this game. He could make it to where she would think before she ever tried to diminish a man like him.

Looking up at her coolly he adjusted himself so that he was leaning back on the cushion so he was no longer ramrod straight. Lounging back he removed his hands that had been squeezing his her hips and rest them along the back edge of the couch looking completely at ease.

Smirking she ran the tip of a well manicure nail down the bridge of his nose pressing it to his lips as to shush him.

"Just enjoy it." She whispered.

She let her finger slip from his lips and looked deeply into his eyes he was forced take a deep breath because her presence at that moment was overwhelming. Smiling a wicked little smile she closed her eyes clamping her thighs firmly around his hips. Resting her hands on his broad shoulders she rolled her whole body starting with her hips over his rubbing her chest up his abdomen in a serpentine manner stopping when her breasts where at his chin level and she was kneeling over him. Rolling her shoulders with the beat of the music he could almost feel the coarse lace of her bra brush his chin. He almost came unglued at the closeness of her so close yet so far away. Not opening her eyes she rested her hand on his shoulders and rolled back down to his lap every movement slow and deliberate . Trailing her fingers down his should lightly scraping her nails across his pecks until she reached his tie brushing her hand across it loosening it ever so slightly as she arched her back jutting her bests out causing her spine to bow delicately . He could feel the weight of her hair brush his thighs his senses where on over drive he almost didn't notice when her bra came off and fell to the floor noiselessly. Again it took everything he had to keep from running his hands along her naked torso . For once he was in a stupor he wasn't a breast man by an means but hers hung there like velvety soft globes not to big yet not to small just enough to cup his hand around. Her coral nipples were already hard from the chill in the air and all he wanted to do was make them pucker more .

For a normally observant man he went completely brain dead and didn't realize she had slipped off his lap Fully standing in just heals and a G String it looked like her legs went on for days only to be broken up with a miniscule piece of black lace.

She was looking down at him actually laugh as she twisted her bra in her hands, "welcome back to the real world baby cakes. I hope it was worth it." She smiled a bit darkly and tossed her bra at him playfully. With that he watched her turn easily in the god forsakenly high heels and glide out of the room with no thought to her state of dress.

Byakuya was left speechless. He had just been had by an angel in disguise as Satan or perhaps she was just Satan in carnet bent to make his life hell for a day. She may look like Hisanna , but this woman had claws shaper thank any gold digger and smart enough to know how to use them. Leaning back again in the now quiet room he smile darkly to himself this girl could be fun because he no longer saw his delicate , sweet , angelic demure x-wife .But what scared him most was this girl had turned him on she made him want her it felt like she had awakened something long passed dead because he never wanted anything because he had all the toys he could ever wanted given to him.

But even scarier than that to him was he saw Yamamoto in her , clawing her way to the top in whatever way she could through whatever means. It was really hard to believe that this was the same woman he saw running to her car the night before.

He reached over to his glass and drained what was left of his watered down scotch, he didn't want another drink, he knew he wasn't in the mood have another one plus he never liked the fuzzy headed feeling it got him.

Standing he made his way out of the back room to receive whistles and cat calls from Kaien and Shunsui. He gave them a cat that ate the canary smile what did it matter they would never know what had really transpired and the less ammunition the older man had about him being a stick in the mud the better he really wasn't in the mood to get razzed .

He walked over to Kaien who now had a blond sitting in his lap playing flirtatiously with his tie trying to draw his attention back to her.

"Dude." He shook his head with a huge smile on his face. " That girl is hot."

Byakuya just shrugged his shoulders . " She is a stripper." The words came out cold even for him .

Kaien out right laughed at his friends supposed dense behavior. " No dude, I saw her walk out, she maybe short but her boobs were perfect and that tiny waist."

Byakuya tried to give his friend his best tired and board look, but it didn't fool Kaien much as the man looked over Byakuya closely and unfortunately for him saw a piece of the green bra sticking out his coat pocket .

"You didn't" He gestured to the bra .

"Didn't what" He looked down to his pocket as if it didn't matter that he had her under wear in there.

"Fu..."

His words started to come out of his mouth as the woman herself walked back over still mostly naked with what looked like another a two finger high baller glass of scotch. " Fuck me." She giggled crudely and looked over at Kaien with an amused smile and a shake of her head sending her hair ruffling lightly over her shoulders seeming to cause the air around the two men to be brushed with the light sent of a very expensive perfume. "No. but he was kind enough to grab it for me to give it back." She rolled her eyes with an un amused looked " You wouldn't believe that some of the women around here will steel things like that.".

She then turned back to Byakuya with the glass that had started sweat, leaning over like she had a conspiratorial secret to keep with him she whispered in his ear as she handed him the glass. " Just take the glass." Her words came out seriously. " it's not scotch, it apple juice, you didn't look like a drinker and I know that appearances are everything."

Byakuya let out a soft breath so she really wasn't Satan only his spawn. "Thank you." He whispered and slipped a bill into the string of her underwear on her hip.

Smoothly she reached into his pocket and pulled out her bra with a flirtatious smile. "Thank you handsome." She winked at him and gave Kaien a flirtatious look before walking off again.

Byakuya stood there stone still with the drink in his hand as the other men looked on at him curiously at "What exactly did happen in that room."

Sitting back down he looked at all of the men with a board expression. " Her bra was three hundred dollars." He said simply. "I would know I bought Hisanna too many of them before we were divorced." The words came out hard so that no one would push him as to his reasons. "And she is no Hisanna and those bra's probably cost her more than pocket change. I have some heart." He said boardly. " Seeing as it is her livelihood."

Leaning back he took a sip of the drink that was indeed apple juice and silently sighed in relief that he didn't have to explain to his other more lax co workers as to why he didn't have another glass of scotch after such an ordeal that and or a cigar.

His heart was still pounding out of his chest the evening was so sir real to him he had been dragged through the mud then saved by a woman who reminded him so much of his rival and his x wife it was uncanny. All he wanted to do was go home and pass out .His stomach was so tied up in knots at having to keep up this board appearance when he was so tired. He knew the other men would wonder what was wrong if he left and there through process would automatically go back to Hisanna and that was the farthest thing from the truth.

Taking a sip of his drink he scanned the room looking for the girl that had just taken him on the ride of his life and found her sitting in an extremely dark corner looking into a bag of cheeto's curly puffs looking to pull out only the really curly one's with a bottle of water sitting next to the discarded broken cheeto's . It was odd she looked just as tired as he was. Looking at her more intently he wondered what was going through her mind because he also noticed that she had not touched the hundred he had slipped her in gratitude.

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Rukia had no idea how she did it . She had no idea how she danced for that man it was perhaps the biggest performance she had ever pulled off . The entire time she wanted to run because he was not just a man like any other powerful man only looking for domination and a power trip ,men like that she could play .However he was commanding, demanding and oh so charming he was a man who got everything whatever he wanted by being a better predator than a shark. . . He was Shuuhei .

She knew this because she had watched him when he dealt with her sister Matsumoto she was just a toy to him an she realized that when she watched him for a moment before she went out onto the floor. He made it seem like the world was his toy that he could do whatever he wanted with.

It didn't help that they had both done research on each other the night before and knew who the other one was , well quazi knew who the other one was. She suspected he hated her now because she looked so much like his X wife and with as nasty as she read the divorce was she had a strong feeling he wanted to break her because he didn't have the guts to break his X . What he didn't realize was she was nothing like the pampered woman and the only reason she knew that was because she had also done some research on the wife Hisanna after .She looked her up out of pure curiosity piecing together she was rather spineless and he was in charge of her. This further concluded she would not be jerked around by another like man.

As she started to dance for him she couldn't help but smile because he was just like any other man just another dollar sign . Only he was a really big dollar sign he had just made her month by giving her a well deserved ego trip with the thirty grand. It wasn't every day a girl got paid that much from one single person or small a group of people. It made it easier for her when she looked into his eyes because now all she saw hard cold grey cash.

With that happy removed feeling she closed her eyes and let the music take her where it wanted on his body . He was so easy to dance for she didn't feel the need to impress or flirt with him .She was so far removed from him it was almost like dancing in her dreams where the only thing she felt was warm flesh under her hands. Hard shoulders that begged to be touched, his torso was nothing but hard well tone muscle that felt so good to rub herself up against . With the music pulsating in her ears and her eyes closed he was like her own little playground .

She had stopped listening to the way men breathed around her a long time ago they always seemed to pant like horny dogs making pathetic whining noises. His controlled silence was music unto its self because she didn't need to hear he was turned on she could feel it every time she touch him . The only time he made a noise was when she grabbed his tie and it was more of a deep rumble in his chest . This was all man not some pathetic little boy she was playing with and her mind wanted more of this faceless man .

This body was like a play ground for her .Doing something she had never done she played with him loosening his tie a little just enough not a lot. Further letting herself go she was pleasing herself and only herself , something she had not allowed in a long, long time. Not realizing it she unhooked her bra letting it fall to the floor wanting to be seen and be appreciated and it was at that moment she snapped back into reality as she felt his whole body shiver. She looked down into his eyes and wanted to jump off him as quickly as humanly possible. She had just truly given this man a lap dance she had not actually taken off her top for a man in about three years when her career if you could call it that took off and here she was using this man as a playground.

It was also at that moment however that she knew she had him the look on his face was pure unadulterated pleasure and pain mixed into one and it got her off to think she could still do that .Fuck reality slapped her again as she felt her nipples get hard because she caught a breeze from a door opening somewhere . He is just thirty G's she thought furiously. This was just a simple chemical reaction this thought was made easier as she watched him sober and his own face get cold. Smirking just so he knew who was in charge she let him take his fill before flicking her bra at him leaving the room feeling somewhat proud of her almost naked body.

That feeling was short lived as she looked over to the area her friends had been sitting at with the men in Byakuya's party . Nanao's mouth was gapped open at seeing her topless . Her face made Rukia's stomach roll she felt horrible she had not done this for a man in years and swore she never would and here she had lost it to that arrogant bastard no less and did it . She truly felt like she was going to be sick and couldn't look back at the party all she could do was hold her head high give a sly smile and make her way to the back so she could throw up.

Quickly rushing by Rui she averted her gaze so he would not see the look of sadness that had passed over her face. Practically sprinting to the bathroom she almost slammed the door shut behind her and almost collapsed on to the floor. She never let herself go , ever , it was one of her biggest rules since this whole thing had started all these men were ,were money signs. It was stupid of her to even come back to the club she hadn't danced in two years and the only reason why she came back was because Rui had somehow gotten Nanao back and he needed girls to promote the club.

Looking around the cold brightly light bathroom she rested her forehead on the wall this is where it all started this was that place that for better or worse she gained her infamy. It was here that she had meet Shuuhei , he was young and beautiful and rich and promised her the world , sun and stars.

Sliding down to her knee's she let a single tear drop fall . He had given her everything, a place to stay fancy cloths and shoe's, safety, security and a hope to get out of here and actually try to find a job the fit her degree. Then one night after work she came home feet hurting and completely exhausted . She remembered calling his name out down the hall as she usually did when she got home before two . Reaching their bed room she set her bag down in the door way of the dark room expecting to find him with a half sleepy smile .When she turned on the light she nearly vomited . He was asleep but sitting next to him stark naked was her sister Rangiku with a saccharine smile and one perfectly manicure nail pressed to her lips as if the shush Rukia.

That night it felt like her world had been shattered everything came undone at once her safety her security her chance at a better life doing the only thing she could think of she hopped back into her car and dialed Ise number.

Thankfully her best friend took her in because the next day he kicked her out of the house all of her cloths ,shoe's and purses went away as well as the car that he had bought her , she couldn't believe she was stupid enough to let him buy her car . Rukia was left with nothing but the cloths on her back and an account that she had not told him about that was in her name solely. But it was that day that she swore that she would never rely on anyone again . If she wanted to get anywhere in this world she would do it herself by her own accord and no one was going to stop her . It was also when she swore she would never let herself get evolved with a man like that or for the time being a man in general because she would not let anyone stop or hinder her upward mobility.

Shaking from the memories that came flooding back Rukia took a deep breath and slouched further to her knees placing her hands on the cold tile floor trying to ground herself and remind herself where she was and who she was. She was not that pathetic little girl any more. She had made her money , she had her own condo, her own cars .her own life, her own business and no one could take that away from her.

Standing again she faced the mirror and took a long look at herself and shook her head .He was just a man he was not Shuuhei and that was it, so what if she partook in a little fantasy of her own after years of working hard there was nothing wrong with what she did. Surprising yes, bad no . Smiling a little to herself she shook her head . She was getting freaked out over ghosts that could not harm her any more . Besides she thought with a sadistic little smile with as up tight as he looked he would have more explaining to do to his friends than she would ever have to do to anyone, and at the very end of the night she now could remind herself that this was no longer her lively hood she no longer had to be a stripper.

Taking one last look at herself she fluffed her hair and made sure he lip stick was still on looking down at her bare breasts she sighed , now all she had to do was get her damn bra back because that bitch was expensive and it was one of her favorites. Taking one last long look at her body she nodded she worked hard to keep herself in shape and all the work had paid off she had nothing to be ashamed of walking out there mostly naked.

Walking out of the bathroom she bumped smack dab into Rui.

"Are you okay?" He looked down her with genuine concern.

Nodding self consciously Rukia just smiled and nodded her head. "I'm fine now."

The man just gave her a side long glance. "You know you didn't have to do that." His words came out bluntly.

She merely nodded again. " I know."

"Then I take it you also know he is not Shuuhei."

Rukia shrugged her shoulders looking indifferent again, but looked at the man she had just given the dance to. " I don't know what kind of man he is."

It was his time to shrug his shoulders. " The kind who looks uncomfortable and wants to go home."

Tilting her head to the side she watched the man stiffen at his friends cat calls and jabs that they were making and did feel a little pity for him. Much like her he looked tired and like he had too much on his mind.

"Your nicer than this to just leave this man hanging no matter what your feelings are about him are at the current moment." He looked down at her kindly .

"I know Rui." But in the back of her mind all she could think of was the way he played Matsumoto even if the woman really did deserve it.

Watching him more the more she realized that she would like someone to help her if she got into that situation since she knew what it was like to live in a world where appearances where everything. Walking up to the bar she smiled at Unohanna.

"Your usual sweetie" The older woman said in a kind voice.

Rukia just nodded her head and smiled back at the woman, " I don't know why you do this Retsue you have a great day job."

The woman cupped Rukia's cheek. " To take care of girls like you." The kindness never left her eyes. " I know how hard it was to work my way the where I am now ."

Rukia nodded gratefully and took the glass of juice.

"By the way sweetie, your cheetos are under the counter at the far end of the bar and there is a bottle of water waiting for you as well."

All Rukia could do was laugh. "Thank you mom." As she walked away she could hear the woman chuckle.

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Byakuya watched the girl pick at her cheetos as he nursed his apple juice .Her eyes still took on a hard cold quality , but at the same time she just looked tired .

"Dude." His other associate said as he followed his gaze to the little woman sitting the corner. "Even eating cheeto's she is hot, but we didn't pay thirty G to sit around and watch her eat cheeto's.

He had a feeling he knew what this young man was going to do and he had a really strong feeling he wasn't going to like it one bit because after what happened in the back room he thought that both of them needed a break.

From out of the boys mouth he heard a loud drunk whistle " Oi Sweet cheeks."

He watched as Rukia looked up from her concentration on finding the perfect spiral cheeto puff . " We didn't pay you to eat cheeto's. We are here to party."

Byakuya physically cringed at this junior associates crass behavior he had no idea that any one in his firm was this classless.

She looked to be starting to put back on the bra that she had saucily tossed in his lap when he heard his more than rude voice again " No need to put that back on sweetie you don't need it you have great tit's."

This time Kaien looked at Byakuya with a cold expression it was time for this man to go the firm's reputation would not be put on the line for some horny kid.

But oddly enough he watched the woman take the bill that he had given her out of her g string grab a bar napkin and write something in it put the bill in it and fold it up. He then watched as the other extremely sexy bartender handed Rukia something that looked like it could be a pure syrup of some sort. He knew he didn't like the way this was going as he watched both Ukitake , Shunsui , and Shiba try to get the drink away from the inebriated young man with little to no luck because they were trying not to cause a scène.

But he watched the topless woman sashay up to Byakuya and hand him the little folded up napkin with a coy smile.

"That's more like it sweet cheeks come over here and spread the rest of us lonely guys some love ."

The smile on the girls face turned absolutely dark. " Of course sweetie." She practically purred.

"Rukia." He heard the woman on Shunsui's lap warn the tiny woman. Byakuya knew she was now on a mission.

"Oh Ise." She said in a sickeningly sweet voice I am just trying to give everyone equal attention."

He watched the blue eyes woman burry her head in his friends neck and whisper something not bothering to pick her head up to watch the upcoming event .

Byakuya knew this was going to be bad he just had a feeling running through him that nothing good was going to happen. He watched the nameless associate slap Rukia on the ass , but to his amazement the woman didn't flinch just kept her perpetually cool smile on her face.

"You want a good time." She purred as she leaned over the man .

"Oh yeah sweetie why don't you take me back there like you did my boss and give me the same treatment. I mean they paid a pretty penny for you to entertain us."

The girl looked to consider it for a moment with a mischievous smile "Well." She picked up her hand with the sticky concoction in it and dumped it over his head. Licking her lips she flicked the rest of it into his lap. " I think you need to cool off before that happens." Standing she put her hand on her hip. " And to clarify they paid for me not you." She blew a kiss to him. " And you couldn't afford me." She dropped the heavy glass on his crotch and turned away .

"You bitch." The young man shot , but before he could take a step towards her he had a large psychotic looking man with large black spiky hair pick him up by the skin of the scruff of his neck and jerk him away from the couches. "You've had enough." Was all he said

"Well that went well." Kaien looked over to him and shook his head.

"Get his name because he will no longer have a job in the morning for disgracing the firm with his rude behavior."

Byakuya watched as the girl flipped her hair over her shoulder not even bothering to look back as the man got dragged out by the club by his neck.

"Well this night has been eventful." Kaien looked to the door as it shut and watched the huge man sit back down in previous place.

The young man had killed the evening for the rest of them . Everyone in the group seemed to suddenly sober up and shift in their seats uncomfortably. Even the woman that had been actually playing around Shunsui all night seemed to be looking worried. He watched the pretty violet eyed girl fill a tall flute with some champagne walk and over and sit in Ukitake's lap and take a sip of her drink.

"Well that sufficiently sucked." She said with a smirk causing the rest of the men to chuckle and feel more at ease seeing as she wasn't freaked out.

The of the night felt sir real to him as he watched more as of a conscious objector. This had not been a scene that he had been in , in many, many years. As he looked around outside of this little private party nothing much seemed to have changed. There were still girls in various stages of dress . Some dancing , other just sitting with a group of men pouring drinks and offering good conversation. The girls in the group seemed to offer good conversation because he could swear that the little girl with the bun in her hair had actually been shyly flirting with Hitsugaya and was asking him about upper division math that she didn't understand and he seemed to be writing out problems on a cocktail napkin. Byakuya chuckled internally who knew his tightly strung little accountant would ever find anyone interesting in a gentleman's club. The three women that circulated this meeting seemed to be the most competent ones he had ever met. Rukia seemed to be the only one that was out of place he didn't read anywhere that she had a degree or did anything else than what he saw her doing right now.

"You must have had a long night."

Byakuya looked over at Kaien and just nodded .

"You didn't sleep did you ."

He just gave his friend a tired look.

"She isn't related to Hisanna, you know." Kaien leaned back a sipped his drink. "Her name is Shizku." He snorted. "You've heard of this girl her name has to be plastered all over the web and she has been in Maxum a few time. He snorted. "Girl is hot, they pay her just to show up at places I am sure what we paid is only a drop in the preverbal bucket for her.

He arched his eyebrow in genuine surprise this girl was old man Yamamoto's daughter not some girl that was plastered on all the covers of men's magazines almost naked. He just shook her head. " No I looked her up her last name is Yamamoto."

Kaien almost spit champagne out of his nose trying to keep from laughing. There is no way she is a Yamamoto." He said loudly

At the moment he saw Rukia look up like a deer in the head lights at the name being thrown around then settled down.

'Yeah , no." Kaien snorted. " that girl is far from a Yamamoto , but she did bunk with Rangiku her first year in university . Come on bud you have to remember that little girl that Matsumoto used to call a freak because she got in to university at fourteen."

Byakuya did remember a scrawny shy little girl that had the misfortune of bunking with that bitch he actually felt sort of bad for her because she seemed to take the blunt of the older girls fits. Byakuya fixed his eyes on Rukia trying to see that little girl that used to live in the same dorm as his X and for the life of him the only thing he could connect was there colored eyes.

"No Shizku had done well for herself for doing what she does." he shook his head. " More than well , she is worth more than half the men in this group."

He didn't bother to look over at Rukia there was no way that the woman sitting next to the white haired man could ever be that shy little girl that cowered in dorm room. He used to cringe for that poor little thing she was cute and if anyone ever spoke to her and Masumoto was around she would rip the little girl to the ground until she was on the brink of tears or just put her head down.

"Besides." Kaien popped him out of his train of thought. " You know Yamamoto only had one daughter and that happened to be the woman the used to make fun of Rukia. The man snorted "Besides Yamamoto was too old to get it up enough to have a daughter that young." He shook his head. "If you remember he was old when Matsumoto was young."

Byakuya leaned back and shook his head "No the woman was no Shizku she was Rukia Yamamoto throughout all of his data bases he searched through it came up time and time again Yamamoto . He felt like he was getting nowhere and hurting himself more than he was helping himself. Looking over to Kaien he shook his head looking tired to try to get himself away.

" I need to get going or I am going to pass out tomorrow I'm running on no sleep."

Kaien nodded knowing very well there was truth in his friend's statement.

"Night Kuchiki." He waved the man off simply and let him slip out of the club unnoticed.

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Rukia watched Byakuya leave and let out a quiet sigh of relief after the door closed behind him. Leaning over Shunsui Ise rest her hand on Rukia's shoulder trying to comfort her.

"Leave" she whispered quietly. " it's late enough no one will know you have left and I'm pretty sure Momo and I can take it."

Both women looked over to Momo and the white spiky haired man. " She really is cute isn't she." Ise said with a motherly smile

Rukia nodded her head. "Yeah she is and the young man looks like he could be a good one."

Ise nodded in agreement they both sat there for a moment watching the two with quiet smiles.

"Okaa-san invited us out to lunch tomorrow at The Place on the Corner.

Ise eyes widened with a bright smile "It has been ages since I have seen Hio."

Rukia nodded in agreement. " She even invited Momo with us ."

Ise chuckled "You want me to tell Momo when we get off ."

Rukia sighed in relief " Would you I'm drained ."

"Are we meeting about two as usual."

Rukia nodded sleepily "Same time same place."

The other girl smiled and hugged Rukia " Drive safe sweetie."

**So any who I hope this chapter lived up to any expectations it had the chars are OOC , but I'm trying to make them as many of them as I can close to the original char personality as possible.**

**So here is your chance to tell me if you loved it , hated it , or think it should go in another direction completely. So please R&R**

**As well I am grammatically challenged and did my best to get out all the kinks so please be kind I know where my short comings are **


	3. Chapter 3

**So here is the third installation of the story . I hope it lives up to the standard of the other two. As well I want to offer a for warning I re looked over this for error's and its pretty late at night so please excuse any error's . **

XoooX

After I wrote this chapter I happened upon this song on my I tunes and I felt it fit both Byakuya and Rukia's character perfectly for this story so I thought would put it in here to give a little more perspective on the char's.. All though for Rukia just switch the she for a he ;)

When I was young  
I fell in love  
She was a goddess  
With a world inside of her mind  
When she moved on  
Something went wrong  
She took my power  
And the love I had inside  
Now that I found you  
I don't know how to

If I could fall  
In love again  
I'd fall in love with you Song by Lenny Kravitz

_Sprinting up to him he saw the sparkle in the woman's deep violent eyes "Oh Byakuya I can't believe we got this place!" She took a small leap and threw her arms around him causing him to smile and hold her closely at that moment he smile with his entire being. He looked up at the giant house and couldn't believe it himself all of his, he had to pause and her hard work was finally beginning to show. He tenderly placed a kiss on the top of her head. Still holding her close he let out a deep relived sigh. This was his , he had earned this with is blood sweat and tears. Years of no sleep, forgotten birthdays, and a tiny cramped apartment he finally felt like he had made it . _

_He looked down to his beautiful new wife and she made him feel at peace , he could hold her forever and be the happiest man alive and then beyond. She had been so sweet and patient with him while they had worked their way through university. _

_Wiggling herself free from his grasp she turn and looked at the house putting her hands on her hips with the biggest smile. " It looks just like home." He saw a small happy tear fall down her cheek . He watched her quickly wipe it away before she thought he saw and turned to smile at him. He pretended not to notice and stroked her cheek gently " I know how much you missed your home up north in Nagano."She nodded her head a little smile passed her face." Oto-san and Oka-san would be so happy when they come down and see it". He watched her practically burst at the seams with happiness as she hurried to the front door. _

Byakuya thrashed around in his bed, he couldn't find a comfortable place to save his life and when he did he would close his eyes and dream of her. They were almost always of her of when she smiled in the beginning when she was proud to be Mrs. Kuchiki before she grew to resent him. Rolling onto his back he looked up at the ceiling and let out a deep breath . After a few years she started to complain that the long hours should have stopped years ago.

His heart constricted as he continued to reminisce she had hated the long hours, countless meetings he had to attend and she despised the functions they were forced to go to she would complain that everything was so stiff and all the women hated her. The longer he worked the more incisively she would complain about them ,but when she would see her account go up or get something shinny, pretty ,new ,and expensive it made everything better for a while. To make her happy he made sure they had all the right car's. The beach house , the winters ski house , their main house on the outside the city in one of the most exclusive suburbs and finally a flat in the city for when she wanted to shop and did not want to drive home.

It all came at a cost , the more she wanted , the more he had to work and then the more she hated him for not being around. Before he knew it she would be gone for weeks at a time to her parents house in the north or to some tropical island with her friends. He thought it would get better when she finally meet Kaien's wife Miyako . She was a wonderful grounded woman who good naturedly put up with a dog of a husband who worshipped the ground she walked on. Not even she seemed to pacify Hisanna which was odd because she set everyone at peace.

In the end it got bad , real bad, Rumors started to circulate when they found out that Byakuya had spent nights at the office .

Turing his head he remembered the first time he had stayed in the office he had not been able to come home for a dinner party she was throwing because he had a major case that he and Shiba were working on .

He closed his eyes and clenched his fists as the memories' started to pour through his mind. He had told her he couldn't do it ,but she had insisted on keeping it on that day . It was supposed to be some huge social fundraiser that everyone they knew was going to be at. He begged with her and pleased and said he was sorry ,but the only thing that would pacify her was him being there and he just couldn't the firm was growing so quickly and they needed this case to keep them afloat. This would be the first time he had ever gone up against Yamamoto himself if he won this case this would send them into the stratosphere perhaps even take them international. He tried to explain to her that this was a good thing, it would move her up in social standing that they would finally have it all.

Because he couldn't be there at all .he promised her she could have anything he would take a vacation and they could go on that trip to Paris that she had wanted for so long .But the best he could do that night was offer her a blank check so she could fill it out in their name for the cause she was working on. When he left with that morning she still had bitter feelings from the ugly scene and a slammed door behind him . However he was sure that when he came home much later that they would be able to work it out and she would be happy because she had meet her goal.

When he came home that first time he tried to put his key in the door he found the lock wouldn't turn , He was dog tired so he thought he had mistakenly had the wrong key so he tried another one and that one didn't work either. He was confused because the keys should have worked , as he ran his hands through his hair he looked down and a little under his chin at the middle of his chest he found a black piece of paper stuck to the door informing him that the locks had been changed and she would talk to him tomorrow night at Maarx restaurant .

He had nowhere to go so he numbly drove back to the office his couch in there wasn't uncomfortable, but it wasn't his bed so he would make due for the night. That was the first of many mornings his best friend would come to work and find him on his couch in his office . Before long It started to become more frequent so he just started to keep a changed of cloths at the office. The locks no longer got changed, but the fights would last until the small hours of the morning. She accused him of everything from having an affair with his secretary , she got so pissed at that thought she broke a venetian glass vase they had bought on their first vacation she then accused him of everything else under the sun .

He would open credit card bills after one of her fits and find out that she would go and spend obscene amounts of money that they didn't have . Her only response was that if he were more attentive to her she wouldn't have to do the things she did.

What got him though was every waking moment he wasn't at the office he was with her, but it wasn't like it used to be .They never went to any of the festivals like they used to go to or just spend the day sunning at the beach . He would find himself at a hot spring, or a spa of some sort, or at a truly outrageous drunken socialite dinner party ,or even a few time she would take him out shopping because she said she was embarrassed by his old fashion way of dressing.. . . . How could a Black suit be old fashion it was classic.

He shifted restlessly again and let out a snort , he should have seen it coming he really should have seen it coming with as unhappy as she had become, but he hoped if he tried hard enough to show her he loved her she would be happy again. That day never came though what came was a rude awakening at his office one mid afternoon. He had the sheriff knock on the door to his office with a manila packet serving him divorce papers and a restraining order from ever getting near Hisanna again. Thankfully the visit wasn't note worthy to his fellow partners because the sheriff often came into the when he took on a high profile criminal case.

He remembered reading through the documents, her lawyer sucked because there were loop holes everywhere and nothing was lock tight he could have taken her to the cleaners and left her with nothing but it wasn't in him to do that . He would give her everything she wanted, she wanted the summer house , the winter house and the main country house. He could keep the flat in Tokyo but he was not a loud to move in until the divorce was finalized because she still might be in residence there and he was not to be within two hundred yards of her. There was also a no contact clause as well so everything that had to be said would be said through their lawyers.

Kaien was the first to know about the mess and not two hours later his wife Miyako called him and insisted that he stay with them until the divorce was finalized and his life went back to normal. He had to smile Kaien could be a dog sometimes, but he would never stray because he knew he had an amazing wife .

Miyako was amazing even though she was six months pregnant at the time she would "pamper" Byakuya making sure he was well feed and would fuss over him if she thought he looked to shaggy and unkempt . He had to smile because when Hisanna leaked the divorce out the media had been right on top of it and Miyako was there to keep the reporters away from him and her house .He never really knew how she did it, but somehow she did and on some level he didn't want to know because he knew her family had connections.

It amazed him that she had so much class she never spoke a ill word about Hisanna to anyone and never spoke a ill word about him . She never gave statements to the reporters or to the tabloids even though her name started to get dragged through the mud as the rumor mills started to get worse. She just stood beside her husband defending him and his firms integrity. It amazed Byakuya that the woman had not changed that much since they had all been scraping there way through university.

In the middle of the chaos there were many nights he would stay up unable to sleep and she would make him tea to try to sooth him . He never understood her , he wasn't her husband she didn't have to be this nice to him but she still was . She would just smile and tell him she did it because that's what true friends do for each other they take care of each other. On some of the nights he felt particularly down he would ask her why , why she was still with Kaien even if he couldn't be there every moment of the day for every party for every dinner for every vacation. Why she wasn't angry for have to keep up with his insane hours. She would just give him a serene smile and tell him since the day he meet her she knew he loved her he didn't have show her in grand ways she just knew it and it filled her heart with joy to have found a man as good as he was . He remembered one night she put her hands on her swollen stomach and told him she knew he would be there for the important stuff and pat her belly.

Coming back to reality for a moment he curled up hugging his pillow to himself tightly he burred his head into it. He would have been there for all the important things in life for Hisanna why could she not have seen that , how could she not have seen that everything he did , every step he took forward he did for her.

He continued to toss and turn in bed all night long drifting in and out of sleep but it felt like every noise on the second floor or his house woke him up . So he just decided to throw in the towel so to speak and get up and start his day. It was a Saturday but he still had a office full of work that had to be done .

Padding his way barefoot across the cold marble floor he frowned and picked up the pants he had just dropped on the floor there the night before . Pursing his lips he shook them out but they were still wrinkled and would have to go to the dry cleaners down. Folding them over his arm he paused as he felt something fall out of the front pocket .

Looking down at it , it was just a wadded up bar napkin .Shrugging he picked it up and was going to try to make a basket into his waist basket in the corner of his room with it until he realized it was a little heavier that what a normal bar napkin should be .Then it hit him that this was the napkin that the girl had rolled his money up in and gave back to him. He looked down at it for a really long really hard moment he didn't know why she just didn't take the money . He thought that was all those girls were after any way the all mighty dollar. Against his better judgment he started to slowly unravel the napkin to retrieve the tightly folded bill. The bill fell out but what caught his eye was there was a smiley face drawn on the paper . . . .Odd he thought to himself , but then saw the writing on it, he hopped to god it wasn't he telling him to fuck off and die. He has spend all night dreaming of a woman who had done that too many times to count . But in pretty flowing script he read

_**I hope you enjoyed the apple juice it wasn't extravagant but it looks the most like scotch and thank you for keeping it classy all the way through I know I didn't make your night easy. As for the money I figured you had better ways to spend it than on a stripper XOXOXOX –R **_(then there was the goofy smiley face)

The little smiley face that was on the end of the short note did it . He couldn't believe this girl she was the reason why it felt like his balls were going to fall off this morning from being so hard for so long last night . She had driven him to the edge of his sanity with that dance , then actually thanked him and gives him his money back.

Taking a deep breath out he continued to look at the crumpled piece of paper even though she had made him physically feel horrid in retrospect she had actually been really sweet by not calling him out and she also diffused a few situations that could have turned out really bad.

Padding across the room he tossed his pants in his hamper but kept the note and the bill. He looked at the note for a long moment then walked across the hall into his office and sat back in the big leather chair behind his desk . He set the note down next to the keyboard and tap his long slim finger tips on the table top next to paper. When he looked her up she had come up as Rukia Yamamoto , not Rukia Shizuka. He didn't know what his friend was talking about it Yamamoto that was what her given name on all of her records said . There must be some mistake and there was yet again a third woman out there that looked like Hisanna or perhaps Hisanna had just become a stripper . He chuckled darkly to himself that would be an interesting twist of fate , but last he check when he got the order he no longer had to pay alimony she was married to some trust fund baby.

Looking down at the paper one more time things just didn't add up the smiley face seemed to fit the girl that had stepped into Lamborghini that first night not the woman that had given him a lap dance. Leaning back in the chair this was no longer becoming a search for ghosts now he genuinely wonder just who the hell this girl was because that could not be the timid little girl that Matsumoto made cower in the corner. He was usually really good at summing up people at first sight and she was seeming to run two different lives if indeed it was her especially if he had once known her.

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It didn't feel like she could get clean enough as she scrubbed face with face wash in the sink in the back of the club. There were a million different cleansers that the girls all had there for the end of the night when they took off there make up because none of them wanted to leave caked in glitter , gemstones and fake lashes. As the water ran she looked up at the mirror and watched her face for the night melt in thick black lines and harsh smelling bubbles down her cheeks . She wanted it all off she just wanted to scrub harder so she could get it off faster so she could forget the whole night ever existed or ever happened.

As she looked down into the sink and watched a thick river of gold run down the drain and started to cry because if felt like she was peeling off a second skin. A completely different person was washing down the drain and it hurt and it scared her and made her feel tiny and empty and alone. What got her even more was she didn't know which face made her feel more alone the one she put on for the glamour shoots and the parties or the clean fresh wholesome one she used when she was sitting in front of a projector with a remote talking about company image. At the moment it felt like the weight of the world was on her shoulders and no matter how hard she tried she could not get the two people to merge and it was getting exhausting.

It didn't make any sense she had everything now she had a job in the degree that she chased after and her own business that she had built from the ground up to get her there. What weighed on her most was the world knew her as Rukia Shizuka, the dancer , party girl pin up the woman to hate, chastise and envy all at once. Then there was Rukia Yamamoto a girl only a few people knew and that was only because she chose to do business with them , well what people would consider reputable business. It made her money a lot of money ,but if she were to stop dancing and partying people would dig into her life and find her business side and if her business side found out she was indeed a dancer she would be looked at as a slut not to be taken seriously. She was just lucky make up and clothing or lack of it did a lot to hide a person . The sad thing was she changed so often it was hard to remember if she was going to a place she had to wear her glass's or her contacts and sometimes if she got them mixed up she would end up running into walls because she couldn't afford for the façade to fall.

_In beginning it all felt so easy when she was in university she was a little nerd who wore thick glasses and a very blunt unstylish hair style that she could hide behind , non descript clothing , non descript hair and to thick glass's perfect for a little girl who wanted to live in the shadows. If she lived in the shadow of her older sister nothing bad happened her "father" never bothered her because she wouldn't stand out and she couldn't handle it , if it were to get out that she was in fact his bastard daughter. He had once told her that if she told anyone he would ruin her and her mother and there would not be a place in Japan they would be able to live or work._

_That in its self had scared her enough as a fifteen year old girl to hide , but as university continued on life became harder and harder because her mother couldn't support her and the small jobs that she was trying to hold down where not enough to pay the bills._

_She was at end finally the day she meet Nanao Ise, Rukia had finally had it up to eyeballs with working two jobs trying to go to school and feeling like she was on a sinking ship because she had to move home with her mother and with their combine income they were struggling to keep their meager apartment too._

_Sitting on a planter in front social sciences building she finally lost it and started to cry , the tears started slowly because her back was hurting from the night before . He boss at the dinner had her scrubbing floors all night in the back because the health inspector was coming the next day and he wanted to make sure that everything was spotless so she spent eight hours hunched over a mop and bucket trying to get every nook and cranny. It wouldn't be so bad but she had all five of her class's that day so her back pack was filled to the gills with books and she had to bring her satchel so that she could also carry her lap top and over flow. She couldn't help it that her class's were all over campus so she had to hike to get from one class to the other. Her feet hurt , her back hurt ,her bags where heavy she had a two hour lecture and all she could think of was rent was coming up and she didn't know how her and her mother were going to make rent with the way the month had been going . It sounded like a bad story everything in the house seemed to be falling apart at once ._

_It was there in a puddle of tears that Ise found her to this day she had no idea how they struck up a conversation over Rukia's sobbing and sniffling but somehow they did . As they got to talking Rukia found out that Ise had a similar story but different , Ise had no parents they had both died a long time ago and now that she had turned eighteen her foster parents whom she thought loved her kicked her out and she needed to find a way to make money so she had become a waitress at a bar. She remembered Ise looking over carefully and asking if she wanted to see if she could get a job there._

The rest was history , wiping her face once more with a towel to dry off she looked back in the mirror and had to look away because there looking back at her was that little seventeen year old that wasn't sure of herself.

Pulling her keys out of her purse she looked out her phone and looked at it for a long moment as she made her way out the back. Taking a long look up at the night sky she pursued her lips and squeezed her eyes shut as another ball of emotion threatened to take over looking back down at the phone she started to punch into numbers , she knew she couldn't back to her own home tonight so she would go some place that seemed to make all of her worries ease.

The noise from the club leaked out to the back so she had to step away from building into the florescent flood light that light up the back lot . Looking around once again she pressed send and tapped her foot waiting from the dial tone to connect her.

It finally connected and felt a flood of relief wash over her.

"Hello." Her voice came out small and scared . " Oka-san , it's me , Rukia."

"Baby?" the woman's voice on the other side sounded worried. "Are you okay?" The woman asked hurriedly. "Are you hurt , do you need me sweetie?"

Rukia hated calling home this late at night, but after what happened she didn't know where else to go .

"No,No Oka-san. I'm. . . I'm." she sighed tiredly . " I'm tired and I need to come home." Her voice quivered with the threat of oncoming tears.

"Baby." The woman's voice came out compassionately . "You know you're always welcome any time hunny. Do you need me to come and get you? Are you at the club?"

Rukia shook her head even though her mother couldn't see it. " No Oka-san I can make it home he didn't follow me tonight."

There was a relived sigh on the other end of the line.

"You will be home in twenty minutes."

He mother always needed a time when Rukia would be somewhere or home . She guess it was just habit from when she was small and Rukia would call her mother every night when she got home from school or work.

"Yes Oka-san I will be home in twenty minutes."

Rukia could hear things shift around on the other end of the line as her mother spoke.

"Okay baby take your time and drive safely and I love you." She said hurriedly .

"Love you too, Oka-san."

The line went dead and she put her phone back in her purse.

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It took her less than twenty minutes to get home because she took her good car again. She had to smile because if she were two minutes early than twenty minutes or two minutes over her mother would know she had speeded or dawdled around . She smiled and sunk down into her seat because where she was going for the night she felt a certain amount of peace in it because when ever anything got to be too much her mother always found a way to make them better.

Taking a deep breath she felt a deep sense of calm as she saw the back porch light turned on and the warm glow of the kitchen light on. It reminded her of when this all started off and her and her mother would finally get their chance to talk at two am after both of their work days where done. It felt sir real but it felt good at the same time.

Unlocking the back door she stepped into the kitchen and in hailed deeply it smelled like her favorite spice tea and a hint of the almond cookie's she loved so much.

"Hello darling." Her mother said without even looking up.

Smiling Rukia took a seat as her mother fussed over the cookies one final time " Hello Oka-san." She said happily snagging a cookie. She heard her mother laugh softly at Rukia's eagerness to get to the cookie's.

"Ah , my baby girl never changes." The old woman smiled and sat down next to her.

Shaking her head with her mouth full she attempted to smile but ended up getting crumbs everywhere in the process. Quickly taking a gulp of the scalding tea she choked it and the rest of the cookie down making a gagging noise.

Her mother just arched an eyebrow. "Tea is hot remember."

"Thank for reminding me." She blew some of the steam off the cup and took a small sip before adding some milk.

"So what is up baby" Worry was etched into her mother's face as she looked at her.

Slumping down in her chair she cupped the tea cup in both hands and looked down into the brown liquid. "I ran into one of Masumoto's old toy's" she said in a small voice

Her mother just nodded her head.

"He knew who I was."

Her mother just hmmed and stirred her tea with her spoon.

"He did and he didn't. He knew I was Rukia Yamamoto , Rangiku's awkward little sister. He had no idea I was Rukia Shizuka." She looked into her tea dully.

"He was trying to figure you out wasn't he baby." Her mother said quietly.

"Yes Oka-san he saw right through me that I wasn't who I appeared to be."

Her mother just nodded her head. "Who was he?" she asked calmly.

"Kuchiki , Byakuya."

"He is a smart man my little one you may not be able to run from him if he has his eye on you." The old woman laughed with some amusement.

"How do you know him?"she asked cautiously as she grabbed a cookie.

" I knew his grandfather before your father black balled me from the business world." The old woman looked thoughtfully into her cup for a long moment . " His grandfather was an honorable man." She said simply. "They are not bad people." The words came out honest and true.

"I can't afford to lose everything I worked for." Rukia said desperately.

"I told you in the beginning baby girl that you can't live two lives forever."

Rukia took a deep trembling breath. "What if my father finds out I have made my way into a world he banished you from he will destroy me. He has already threatened to do that once ."

Her mother looked up coldly. "He can no longer hurt you my little one and if he did he would bring himself down with you."

Rukia froze in her seat not sure what to say

Reaching a hand out the old woman rested it on top of Rukia's " Hold your head up high baby girl you have nothing to be ashamed of the sooner you learn that the better off your life will be."

Both woman sat in the kitchen for a long while in silence.

" I love you Rukia ,be braver than I was." The old woman said quietly

"I love you too mama." She whispered. " I need to go to bed though I have work with the Shinhoin group tomorrow."

Her mother smiled without looking up from her tea. "I pressed your black suit and it is in your closet."

"Thank you mama." She laughed quietly and stood up from the table.

Rukia walked down the hall to her small room and felt a small amount of warmth spread through her as the familiarity of the house slowly started to sink in. Stepping into her old room she let out a deep happy breath because she was surrounded by all of the things she loved and made her , her . Unlike her sterile show condo she kept herself held up in. It was beautiful but it didn't have a touch of her personality in it anywhere. It was the perfect place she could hide in plain sight when she had dinner parties and people over.

Cuddling down into her covers she took another deep breath in and closed her eyes feeling safer than she had in months.

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Byakuya really didn't know how he did it especially a Saturday when he spent the entire night out the night before, but here he was sitting in one of the smaller board rooms of his firm listening to some odd aged couple bicker and fight because apparently there marriage was over and it was all . He paused and looked at both of them because in truth he wasn't really paying attention he sort of zoned out and lost interested after the personal insults started to fly across the table.

Taking a sip of his coffee he looked over to his elderly client and it came back to him about what they were fighting about . Apparently his client had "been sleeping with a younger woman." Looking the guy over really well Byakuya would be amazed if the guy could get it up even with the help of Viagra. He then put on his most serious face and looked over to the woman who had to be younger than himself and he was only thirty. He had to mentally pause if this guy could A) Get it up at his age . Byakuya would full heartily congratulate him then B) wonder if he would have to call the cops to see if the "Whore" he slept with was really of legal age.

Boardly he hunched over the paper work to make it look like he actually did care as the woman on the other side of the table chirped on . Unable to suppress a sigh he looked through the glass doors directly at his partner Shunsui Kyoraku closed and locked door and wonder where the hell he found these nut jobs and why he even bothered to say yes to helping this case . He truly was the wrong person , if it were up to Byakuya at this very moment he would look to the woman and ask her flat out if her partner could actually get it up to even sleep with her. Then he would ask the guy if this woman was really worth it then just proceed with the prenuptial process that had been signed before there union.

Byakuya heard the old man clear his throat next to him

"If I had known she was this crazy before I met her , I just would have kept her as my mistress." He grumbled.

This caught him so by surprise to keep from laughing he had to hold his hand over his mouth because he had just taken a sip of the still extremely hot coffee and had to fight to keep the steaming liquid from coming out of his nose . As he tried to compose himself the entire room turned there focus from the hysterically crying girl to him keeping his face as still as possible he had to ignore the fact that his throat was on fire and he had more than likely burned off half of his taste buds and some nose hair.

"You know the coffee is hot young man , you shouldn't take too big of sips." The old man said good naturedly.

It took everything Byakuya had to keep from getting up and walking out of the room.

"Clearly." He said stiffly in response to the man

Taking his kerchief out of his breast pocket he cleaned off his hands thoroughly trying to get all of the potentially sticky substance off his hands so they wouldn't stick to any of the documents. Looking up as he folded his kerchief up to put it back into his brief case . He watched the woman on the other side of the table quickly look away . He was in no mood to deal with a gold digger .

Looking up at the clock he cleared his throat. " I am sorry ladies and gentleman but I did not anticipate this meeting running as long as it has I must be leaving I do very much apologize for my abrupt exit" . He looked over to the old man . "However I am leaving you In the very capable hands of my vice council."

He closed his briefcase with a sharp click and stood up and walked out he didn't even bother with an excuse he just left without looking back. He would apologize to Shunsui via e mail a little bit later on in the day because only god knew what that man was doing right now.

Half way out the door Byakuya felt his phone buzz and he could only imagine what it could be , as a matter of fact he was hesitant because of what it could be . He wondered if the girl in the room had gone man eater on his junior council and he was now begging for help.

Pressing the **view** button he saw Miyako's name so he pressed open.

**Kaien , the children and I are at Pacific Whey come have coffee with us you work-a-holic , your family miss's you.**

He had to suppress a smile because Miyako knew just how to push all of his buttons in a good way because they slowly become his family. Granted he did have a grandfather that he loved and would do anything for. Kaien had become a brother to him after all of the years that had pass and wonder of all wonders he thought to himself as he stepped on to the street he even liked there little ones . They had a two year old and a new born . He had no idea how the woman put up with both men and both children . Pausing he started to punch in the number to her phone.

**I'm just down the street . I'll be there in a few .**

Finally he thought to himself , so sort of semblance of a normal morning , he snorted to himself , hell a normal day .Some days he would give his left kidney to have a family like Kaien had because it was that type of normalcy he so dearly wanted . Shaking his head he would not let himself think about that thought now he was in a good mood and didn't want to be the one who brought himself down.

Stepping into the café he saw Kaien and his hoard as Byakuya affectionately referred to them . Picking up his hand to grab his friends attention.

"Kaien."

Kaien waved back at seeing him. Byakuya looking at the group though nothing of what was infront of him and he took a step forward and WHAM he collided with someone, a much smaller someone than he was. Afraid it was a child he quickly grabbed it by the elbow before looking down only to look find a hot coffee soaked suit arm and the most intense startled pair of violet eyes hidden behind thick dark framed glasses. His breath caught in his throat as his brain registered who he had just collided with this was certainly not child.

"Rukia?" the words came out just as confused as he felt seeing her in a business suit

" I am so sorry." . . . . . . . . . . she stuttered out.

He watched her avert her eyes quickly and jerkily take her elbow back from his grasp . He watched her fumble for a moment then hurry out of the café without giving him a chance to apologize leaving him gapping after her stupidly .

**So there it is this was just a little back story about the two hope it wasn't to lengthy and as every . Love it? Hate it? Please tell me and R&R**

**Again I know I suck at grammar so please feel free to send a note via PM if you have any issues **


	4. Chapter 4

**So I realized that the last few chapters that I have written haven been insanely sad. So I am going to try to lighten this chapter up so it isn't as heart wrenching and depressing.**

**So as ever enjoy **

**XOXOXO**

Rukia ran out of the coffee shop almost as fast as she could. Her heat was practically beating out of her chest she couldn't believe it was _him_ again! Leaning against her car to catch her breath she shook her head and laughed sadly he was still as beautiful if not more than the night before.

"You're a fool Rukia."

What could he possibly want with her , she snorted darkly what did every man like that want from her , sex, once he got it he would throw her away.

As her heart started to descend to a more normal speed she looked down at her jacket , it might not be ruined, but it was soaked with coffee. She set down her purse and back pack and wrung out the sleeve that got doused , her dry cleaner was going to love this she thought as she watched brown liquid splatter onto the pavement.

Sighing deeply she looked down at the rest of her jacket. Though not as bad as the badly stained sleeve it had still gotten pretty splattered with coffee.

"Great." She muttered as she picked up her purse that she had set down as she tried to catch her breath . "Now I'm going to smell like stale coffee when I get to lunch."

Rummaging around her purse she could not find her car keys for the life of her and really they weren't that hard to miss. Nanao has specifically gotten her a small hot pink Chappy plush so she couldn't lose them because she had a horrible time leaving them in random places.

Getting more and more agitated as she was not able to locate her keys she started to shift things more violently around in her purse. Taking out her sun glass's she placed them on top of her head so she would have one less things obstructing her view to the bottomless abyss that was known as her purse. Normally she would just shift her cell phone around a bit and she would find them, but right now she wasn't even seeing that , and it was pretty hard to miss too considering in had a pink crystal casing. Letting out an exasperated huff she removed her wallet ,and stuffed it under her arm and started to furiously scouring all the small , but many things that resided on the bottom of her purse.

"Looking for these?" a deep male voice came from right in front of her causing her to jump at least three feet in the air and drop her wallet in the process.

Looking up she saw the person she least wanted to see .Standing right in front of her holding her keys in one hand and her cell phone in the other was Byakuya Kuchiki.

Slowly looking up into his eyes she felt like a deer trapped in the head lights of an oncoming semi truck, in the full light of day his eyes were even more amazing than they had been in the club. Instead of being the flat slate grey that she had originally thought they were. It now looked like he had little silver metallic flecks in them causing them to almost sparkle with the ghost of the smile that was playing on his lips.

"Ummm."

Was that the only intelligent thing she could say? It was certainly the only intelligent thing she could think of as his mere presence seemed to captivate her.

Tearing her eyes way from his she looked down to his chin trying not to physically shake off the effect he was starting to have on her.

"Shit!" her mind screamed at her "This can't be happening." She couldn't let him recognize her . Pushing her thick tortes shell glass up her nose she bowed her head letting the normally unruly piece of hair she tried so hard to control fall through her sunglass's and over her face .

"Yes," She said softly not looking up . "Those are mine."

Mentally palming her forehead she berated herself. How could she have been such a klutz and drop her cell phone and her keys at the same time!

"I'm truly sorry for following to your car, but I thought you might need these if you wanted to get very far." He said with a hint of mirth to his voice.

She mentally cringed again feeling very much like the sixteen year old dork she was when she met this man for the first time so many years ago.

Biting the side of her lip she looked back up at him hopeing her hair did a good enough job covering her face .

Releasing her lip from her teeth looking back up at him slowly she felt a slow hot blush creep over her cheeks as she double checked the items in his hands hoping it was possible they may not be hers , but unfortunately they were.

"Thank you." She said as she reached out for the item's.

Great she thought to herself her voice even sounded pitiful to herself. Where was the strong woman that she had tried so hard to build up these last few years? Why was she turning into a simpering pile of goo? This was not the man to be doing this with, this was a man she should be cold to and run as far and as fast away from as she originally intended to do.

She watched him look down at her intently trying to get a good look at her face as he equally as slowly handed her back the items one at a time.

Why couldn't life be kind to her and make this a fast transaction?

"Rukia?" His words came out as a question not a statement as she watched him stair down at her through the mess of glass's and hair.

Life hated her.

"Rukia Yamamoto?" He said this time with more conviction. " Is that you?"

Who else could it be moron she thought silently to herself there weren't many people that actually had violet eyes, unfortunately she wasn't really all that hard to miss if you got a good look at her.

Tilting her head to the side letting her hair fall with her over one of her eyes she looked at him as if she were trying to place him as she nodded her head slowly.

"Yes" She said trying to put at least some coolness back into her voice and failing.

Using all of her acting skills she looked him one last time pretending to let it just dawn on her who he was.

"Kuchiki, Byakuya." Her voice filling with fake surprise

She watched him arch his eyebrow slowly as if he were gauging her reaction.

"It has been a long time since we have seen each other." His words came out as cool as he looked.

She nodded demurely. "Indeed, I don't think I have seen you since you dumped Rangiku." She laid it all out there bluntly so they wouldn't have to have any more awkward moments.

He snorted "Yes she was a lapse in judgment."

She tried ,but she couldn't hide the surprise that she felt .No one had ever called her half sister a lapse in judgment . A bitch , yes , a whore , but never a lapse in judgment . If they didn't call her something nasty most people usually raved about how amazing the woman was.

He chuckled cordially. " I never really did like the way she treated people."

He looked to want to go on and say more, but she really didn't want to hear the merits or demerits of her half sister this was an odd enough encounter as was.

"It's good to see your doing well for yourself." He looked over the car then back at her.

She simply nodded with a smirk now getting back on to territory she was familiar with. " I haven't done to badly." And this was as far as she wanted the conversation to go . "You don't look like you have done to badly either." Quickly turning the topic back to him .

Feeling the need to run she looked down at her watch coolly and faked another surprised look as she looked back up at him apologetically. " I'm sorry to cut this short , but I really have to be going I have another business meeting that I'm running late for." Bending down to get the wallet she had clumsily dropped . She realized like a gentleman he had already picked it for her and was handing it to her. Biting her lip again she searched through it and pulled out a business card without thinking. Quickly scanning it to make sure it said Yamamoto and not Shizuka and she handed it to him.

"Call me some time and we can get together for lunch or something." She said trying to be polite as she could as she unlocked her door quickly and started to step into it.

"Will do." She thought she heard him say as she shut the door and turned on the engine. Pulling out she felt like beating her head into her steering wheel . What the hell had just happened ? She had acted like a moron and she had given him her business card. This wasn't supposed to happen she wanted him out of her life not to invite him into it! Starting to fret she felt her nails drum themselves on the steering wheel. Well , on the bright side all she did was give him her number she didn't have to take his call's.

.

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Byakuya walked back into the posh little coffee shop feeling a lot less smart than when he followed Rukia out with her key's and cell phone. He had never follow a woman _ever_ and yet he was following her desperate to find out who she was. Well now he knew he thought to himself as he looked down at her business card. However this cards header was for Shinhoin International , a very predominate real estate company . It wasn't the only thing the Shinhoins had their hands in . Once Yoruichi took over the company from her grandfather she expanded her empire and had become a leader in importing and exporting goods , and owned a fleet of freight boats and had huge investments in everything that was carried on each of the ships.

He had watched this woman carefully over the years as his firm had various clients that tried to fight her for whatever reason .Everything she touched she dominated and took over and no one really wanted to be in her line of sight.

Much to his confusion this was not a card for Luxx Gentleman's club that Rukia's official legal records said she worked at ,this was a major corporation was not mentioned at all. The card stated that she was head of research and development it gave her phone number , e-mail , fax , and mailing address. He had to smirk all of her information was printed in metallic purple. But the name was her own Yamamoto , Rukia it certainly made sense now as to how she was able to afford the Lamborghini . Narrowing his eyes this card only lead to more questions, who was that girl that had given him the lap dance if she wasn't Rukia Yamamoto?

Automatically making his way back inside to his friend's table he absently took a seat without getting a cup a coffee.

"Earth to Byakuya"

Miyako snapped him out of trans and back to the reality of the here and now.

She tilted her head to the side looking genuinely concerned. "Are you okay Hun?" She said hesitantly.

Smiling apologetically he nodded his head and took on last look at the card. "Yes, I am alright. The woman I followed out was just queer."

Miyako shrugged moving the baby in her arms as she made the motion causing it to let out an odd burping noise.

"Well you did just ruin her six thousand dollar suit." She said laughing. " I'm surprised she didn't bitch slap you for being such a klutz."

Byakuya's eye widened at his normally proper friends lack of propriety.

"I think he is still flustered about last night." Kaien smirked

Miyako smirked and let out a little chuckle shaking her head. " I still can't believe you two went to that club." She looked over at Byakuya with concern again. " It's really unlike you."

Kaien chuckled again before he could explain his lapse in judgment. "It was an eventful evening thought."

Miyako merely raised an eyebrow.

"Our dear Byakuya got his own personal lap dance."

The woman's eyes widened as she choked on her sip of coffee spewing it all over the table. "You got a lap dance." She said in blatant disbelieve.

Byakuya glared at his best friend.

"By none other than the infamous Rukia Shizuka."

This time the woman's eyes practically bugged out of her head. " I didn't think she did that anymore."

Both men looked at her curiously because of her familiarity with the young woman.

"How would you know what she does any more?" Kaien said suspiciously. "How would you even know _her."_ He sounded slightly disconcerted if not a little jealous.

Byakuya was curious as well. How did she know the other woman, but unlike her husband he remained quiet.

"I did happen to have a job before we decided to spawn." she said dryly.

"You were an events coordinator." Kaien said as if stating an obvious.

"And the woman is a performer." She said looking about ready to slap her husband stupid. "I don't know how you could forget about me bitching about having to plan those stupid parties all those young socialites threw for their pre Madonna friends." She shrugged. "As a matter of fact a whole bunch of different clients wanted her to attend their events." She looked over to Byakuya again. "She is actually a really sweet woman."

He really didn't know what to say to her statement he had his doubts about the woman's sweetness with his brief encounter with her she came off jaded and cold . Though she did seem to have a split personality with the little simile face she put on her little note, which just fed his curiosity about her.

Miyako took another sip of her coffee calmly , but looked rather confused. " You know I'm really surprised she gave you an actual lap dance ." She said tapping her nails on the table. "About three years ago she left all of that behind and actually stopped life for about six months." She shrugged again . " I don't know." She said off handedly. "She must be doing Rui a favor." She said more to herself than anyone else . It looked like an idea suddenly popped into the woman's head as her entire face light up with mischief. "Would you two actually be interested in meeting her." She wiggled her eyebrow with an impish grin.

"No" Byakuya said flatly.

"Yes." Kaien said at the same time with a more than enthusiastic smile.

Byakuya really didn't like where this was going. After his more than awkward talk with Rukia Yamamoto an hour ago he wasn't quite sure he wanted anything to do with women yet along the gorgeous woman that had given him a lap dance the night before .It wasn't that Rukia Yamamoto was repulsive or undesirable because even when he had been seeing Matsumoto he had always found something incredibly sweet about the girl, once or twice he had even caught himself wondering what she would be like when she grew up . But that was one of thing that disconcerted him now was she was grown up and he could actually have a chance to get to know the shy girl that he had once met.

Other that he honestly didn't think he could handle seeing someone who looked so much like Hisanna more than once in a twenty four hour period. Taking a deep mental breath all he wanted to do was go home. He did not want to chase ghosts any more once was enough for him because in his heart he really didn't know if he had the capability to get emotionally attached or ever love someone again because he knew somewhere deep inside that this woman was different . He just didn't know if his heart could take it one more time.

"Come on Byakuya" she said with her best manipulative persuasive smile. "It would be good to get you out of yourself imposed exile.

Despite all of his feelings about getting manipulated he couldn't hate Miyako for trying ,she had always had a way to wheedle away into his heart and melt the block of ice that everyone said replaced it.

"You know that smile doesn't work on me Miyako." He said rather unconvincingly.

"Please." She smiled sweetly again. "Beside it would be good for me to get out and actually have adult interaction. I have been spending so much time with the baby's" She smiled lovingly down at her little one though as she said that. "If anything I just want a night out with my two favorite men."

Sighing deeply he knew there was a lot of truth to what she was saying . She actually did need some time out from taking care of her two little ones, and he and Kaien did go out last night to a gentleman's club no less without her.

"All right." He said dryly though he couldn't help but smile as he saw the smile light up her face.

Without hesitation both men watched as she whipped out her cell phone a quickly pressed a button.

"Hello Rukia." She said with an over exited voice "I'm doing great and you?" a soft friendly smile crossed her face. "Good to hear." They could vaguely hear the small voice on the other end of the line. "Unfortunately no this isn't a social call , Well it is ." she paused and wrinkled her nose. " But it isn't." They watched her face relax a bit. " I was wondering if you would be willing to help me out." There was a long pause. "Renji Abari is having a party tonight and I was wondering if you would be willing to come along with me." There was an even longer pause . "I know you can barely stand him he isn't my favorite person in the world either." The men distinctly heard laugher on the other end of the line. "But that wasn't the only favor I needed, I desperately need to get out of the house the two children and my husband are driving me nuts." There was more laughter on the other end of line. "And I was kind of hopeing you would help me try to jump start my career again." They watched Miyako drum her nails on the table " It would only be for tonight and you would go as my guest and who knows it might be fun." There was another long pregnant pause. "You will do it." She said excitedly . "Excellent." They watched her look to think for a moment . " It is going to be a formal dress code." They watched Miyako's smile widen ."Great I will see you at the Four Seasons at about eight." Her smile grew wider. " Awesome you are such a life saver." They heard a chuckle on the other end of the line. " You have great day too ." and with that she hung up the phone and turned and looked at both men with a huge grin. "Done." She said cheerfully."

"You really are horrible." Kaien said with a snort.

Byakuya couldn't agree more .

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Rukia click her phone shut with a silent grumble she couldn't believe she had just agreed to go to a party that Renji Abari was hosting. Renji, the man who made crude and rather nasty stripper jokes at her expense .The man was always trying to make her look like a clueless air head around his clients . He made comments that it was a fact they were better than she was and she was just entertainment . When she had first started dancing she would accept his offers to go to his parties no matter how bad he treated her because she needed the exposure. Some nights she remembered his comments would cut deep her skin had not thickened yet and being called a cheap stripper, or listening to him say women like her would do anything to earn a buck made her want to shrink into herself and disappear because she was not cheap , she wasn't a whore. However in the back of her mind she would ask herself if that is all people really thought of her. Leaning back into her seat as she shifted gears ,and let out a slow breath to keep the tears from coming because to this day she wondered if he was right.

She snorted, but for all of his comments he too sold himself out like a whore and that was saying something , but then again he wasn't the top sports agent in the country for nothing. She just hoped she didn't have to go through any degrading jokes or mean quips from him, but then again tonight she could walk away.

Leaning back in her car seat she slumped down a little bit to add insult to injury he was another one of Matsumoto's X's only he wasn't as nice to her as Byakuya had been. For some reason he still had the same rich boy attitude he did in university. If it weren't for the fact the she knew that Miyako really did need a night to herself she wouldn't have agreed to doing this , and all things considered this would be a formal event far from the raunchy chaotic mess's that the man usually threw trying to impress his would be or soon to be young clients. She could breathe easy tonight.

Glumly her mind wandered back to her encounter with Byakuya. After she stepped into her car she felt like crying. What could a man like that ever want with a girl like her , he was so dashing and smooth and hell who was she kidding he was even more beautiful than he had been in university. Keeping her eyes on the road she snorted softly she knew what would a man like that wanted with an X stripper. She knew men like him where out of her league they wanted good girls. Something that she has ceased to be years ago . She knew who she was and she knew what she was and she knew her place in the world and all the pretending in the world would not make her worthy of him . . . . It didn't make her worthy of Shuuhei.

The sad thing was because even if he knew her on just a professional level as a part of Shinhoin International, just a regular woman, he would never even look twice at her he would be just as cool and indifferent as he had always been because she was just that forgettable. She knew she was invisible and just blended into the scenery just like she had when she was younger. She knew in comparison with the other woman that she worked with she was nowhere near as beautiful as they were. She was just a geeky little girl with glass's .A silent tear now slipped down her cheek because she was angry after all of these years and everything she had accomplished how could she still feel so helpless.

She couldn't believe the way she had acted like that with him . She more than likely acted like a complete moron probably sounding like she had the brain of a peanut and the personality of a turnip . To many of things from her passed where coming back to haunt her and it felt like her very well constructed world was going to cave in if she weren't extremely careful.

"I can't lose this." She said to herself softly as she parked her car in front of Pacific Whey. " I have worked so hard to get out from his shadow." Pulling down her visor she took a good long look at herself in the mirror , if all of this came crashing down would she have the strength to put it all back together again? She Shook her head almost violently as if she were trying to shake the very thought out of her head . She didn't want to think about it she just wanted her life to go back to normal , or well as normal as it could ever be.

Walking into the small café she noticed a few people staring at her and it hit her , she forgot to take off her coffee soaked jacket. Rad she thought sarcastically .

"Rukia!"

She heard her mother speak up across the crowded room waving to make herself known to her . She couldn't help but smile she loved this little café and being surrounded by her friends was just what she needed at this moment. However as she reached the table she watched her mother archer eyebrow a little in amusement.

"It looks like. . . " She started

"You look like you ran into a coffee pot!" She heard her best friend laugh out loud behind her she could also hear Momo chuckling .

"You always had a way with words Ise." She said dryly.

"I love you too Rukia." The taller woman enveloped her in a big huge clearly not caring if she got the sticky coffee on her.

"Morning." Momo yawned and gave her a much more delicate hug seeing as she was wearing much nicer cloths that Ise.

Quickly moving away from Rukia she watched as Ise enveloped her mother in a big hug. "Okaa- san." She said happily. " I have missed you." She looked down at the older woman affectionately.

"And I you baby." Her mother's eyes clearly shinning with happiness at seeing the other woman . Turning she looked at Momo with a motherly smile " And you must be Momo." She extended her hands in a friendly gesture .

"it is nice to meet you Shizuka-san." She said shyly.

" Oh nonsense you may call me Okaa-san seeing as you are such a good friend of Rukia's and you are all like my baby girls any way."

Momo smile was still shy but more genuine . "Alight." She then turned to Rukia as she took a seat along with the other woman. " By the way it does look like you had a fight with a coffee maker and lost did you and Yoruichi-sama have a good meeting this morning?"

The other two woman now looked at her curiously as well.

Rukia snorted with a more than happy smile that border lined on sadistic. "You have no idea." She grinned darkly. "We have almost sunk Ichimaru Inc."

Nanao gasped in delight. "You mean you have almost knocked that bitch of a sister and her husband on their ass."

She just nodded. "We own eighty five percent of his company now the last two board members just sold their shares to Shinhoin Industries."

Nanao clapped her hands excitedly. " I can't wait."

Momo swirled the her coffee around in her cup that she had already gotten. "What will happen when she finally takes it over?" she asked curiously though not as excited as Nanao.

"Close it and move the employee's around Shinhoin Industries if they would like so they will not lose their jobs if they don't want too. Yoruichi isn't a bad person she won't make his employee's suffer for this take over."

Her mother merely hmm as she listened.

Rukia watched Nanao leaned back in her chair for a long looking moment.

"What?" she asked curiously

"How did you manage to splattered coffee over a six thousand dollar suit."

Rukia just gowned. "You really don't want to know." She laughed self deprecatingly

"Now I really do." Momo piped up.

"Fine." She said begrudgingly. "I ran into Byakuya Kuchiki." The words came out flat and unhappy.

All three of the woman started to laugh and laugh hard.

" You." Nanao laughed unable to control herself. " You actually physically ran into him."

"Shut up." She said defensively. "It could happen to anyone."

"Not really." Said Momo snickering.

"Did he recognize you ?" Nanao tilted her head to the side curiously.

"How could he. She looks like a nerd." Momo exclaimed.

" I resemble that." She muttered. "To add insult to injury when we collided I dropped my car keys and cell phone and he actually followed me out to my car to return them ." Rukia ran her hands through her hair and frowned. " He recognized me as Rukia Yamamoto." She said dryly. "The little dork the resided with Matsumoto when she was younger."

Both women's eyes bugged out of their heads.

"He started to talk to me but I just couldn't so I gave him my business card for Shinhoin Industries and drove off."

"You ran away from Byakuya Kuchiki." Momo said in wonder.

"I didn't have a choice!"

From out of the blue she heard her mother chuckle a bit. " Remember what I told you baby he is an observant man."

"Hopefully not that observant" She muttered. "Speaking of unobservant ass's I agreed to go one of Renji Abari's party's tonight.

Nanao's coffee cup clattered to the table . " Why?" she said in disbelief.

**First I would thank to thank everyone that has review this story it has really encouraged me to keep on with it . So I would like to give lots of hugs to seras3791, RunSakura ,Vicky73, Druon, L, SilverQueen, Byakua's Sakura Petal , and everyone else who has read and reviewed It has meant so very much .**

**So I tried to convey other feelings in this story other than just depression , I tried to capture a lot of their insecurities and fear's and moments of just being human . So please R&R and tell me how I did and if I could improve on anything. ( other than spelling and grammar because I already know I suck at that.)**

**XOXOXO again and R&R **


	5. Chapter 5

**Sorry for the late up date of the story but life threw a curve ball at me and decided that I should have a sinus infection that's dr's thought was an abscessed tooth. So needless to say TMI I know and this won't be a very sexy chap because I don't feel that sexy ATM . But! The sexyness shall continue in the next chapter .**

**Again I would like to give lots and lots and lots of hugs to : L , Silverqueen, Vicky73 , DRUON, RunSakura , seras3791 . You guys were awesome for reviewing and thank you so much.**

Rukia sat back in her chair and wonder just why in the hell she actually did chose to take Miyako up on her offer to go to one of Renji's parties , even if it was a nice one. Running her hands through her hair she shook her head and shrugged her shoulders.

" You know I honestly don't know. I can't stand Renji." Her face contorted in discussed just at the thought of the man.

Nanao looked at her with a sympathetic smile reaching over to give her hand a reassuring squeeze. " It won't be that bad." A small smile graced the other woman's lips. " Besides you get to wear a pretty dress." She grinned now. " And you get to put all those pretty pieces of jewelry you have bought over the years to good use."

Rukia gave her a flat look as she reached over to snag a sip of the other woman's coffee because she had yet to get her own. " I put them to good use." She said defensively.

Out of nowhere Momo snorted and choked out a laugh. " Yeah ,but you always look like an old grandma when you do."

Nanao snorted with dark chuckle "Momo is right you know."

Rukia looked over to her mother for help , but only a traitorous smile graced the still beautiful woman's lips .

"Really Oka-san, you're supposed to agree with me. I don't look like a matron ." She slumped down in her seat. " I really don't " she said pathetically.

Stealing her coffee back from Rukia, Nanao still looked amused. " I think the only thing I have ever seen you wear is your white pearls and they were a conservative single strand along with the small stud earrings."

"Those are classic and classy!" She exclaimed in her defense again.

"And boring." Nanao said with a grin.

"And Matronly with that horrible long sleeved black dress if you can call it that." Momo Piped in and looked over at Nanao with a smirk. " I think it looks more like a smock." She shrugged . "Personally."

"This coming from the girl who wears nothing but jeans and tee-shirts" Rukia said petulantly.

Momo grinned. " But I do it with style."

Crossing her arms over her chest looking at her two friends who were conspiring against her " It's only because you have a small ass."

Momo tilted her head back and started to laugh " Damn right I do." She said smugly. " But your diverting us from the point Rukia. When you go out to your corporate parties you always look like an old woman, and you're not."

"But I have to be conservative when I go to those , I don't want to look unprofessional." She said logically.

Nanao put her elbows on the table and leaned towards Rukia "But you're not going to one of those tonight, you're going to formal party as Rukia Shizuka as a guest not a half naked performer. You have a right to look your age tonight . Besides there is nothing that Renji can say that is snarky about you because you will be with his event coordinator who could very easily make him look really bad if she wanted."

"Oka-san." She looked over at her Oka-san pathetically. " Tell them they are nuts."

Her mother looked over at her softly reaching over to cup her hand over Rukia's gently. "I have to say baby they are right you deserve a night you can look beautiful without any worries."

Rukia looked at all three of them helplessly. " I have nothing to wear."

"Yes you do I have seen your very extensive closet."Nanao gave her a very pointed look " And if we have to be there we will find a dress to stuff you into."

"You know Rukia for a woman who looks like she has limitless self confidence you seem to lack it sometimes ." Momo said honestly as she put both of her hands around her coffee cup to warm them up.

"So says the girl who hides behind linear calculus books in her spare time."

" I have school!" Momo exclaimed as if it explained everything.

"You were talking math with the boy with the spiky white hair last night." Nanao said with an exasperated sigh.

"Hitsugaya is sweet! And he was just helping me." Momo Blushed and became defensive.

"All night!" Nanao turned to the girl with smirk. "I saw you walk out with him when the club closed."

Rukia's eyes widened with a huge grin. "Seriously! Our little Momo." She wiggled her eyebrow. " Did someone get some last night?"

"I most certainly did not, he just helped me with my home work." She said desperately.

" Somehow" Nanao dryly. " I don't think she is lying to us."

Rukia nodded in agreement with her friend " You know." She said with smirk and a little laugh. " I think you are right."

Momo blushed furiously at the other two women sitting across from her. "At least he is nice." She said lamely. " We even traded e-mail addresses and phone numbers." She said with a happy smile " That has to count for something" She looked for hopeful approval from the other three woman.

" I think he sounds like a nice young man." Rukia's mother said as a matter of fact.

"But all he helped her with is home work." Nanao said looking exasperated . " I mean how sexy can math really be."

Rukia shook her head shrugged her shoulders . " Don't ask me I never got that far I maxed out at calculus."

"And being a research lawyer is really a sexy job." Momo gave Nanao a pointed look as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"Now children" Rukia's mom smiled with a little laugh .

All three of them looked over to her with slightly guilty faces.

She looked over at Momo with a motherly smile. " I think mathematics can lead into a wonderful career , and if this boy is as nice as you say he is then you should go for it." She then paused thoughtfully. " But be cautious not everyone is nice."

"her last one was an ass." Nanao said darkly.

"We won't speak of him." Rukia said equally as hateful.

Her mother just arched her eyebrow as Momo looked down quietly . "We all learn from our passed don't we?" She gave the two other girls a cool look. " No sense hanging on to things we cannot change."

"Speaking of changing" Nanao quickly changed the subject seeing as Momo was starting to look increasingly uncomfortable. She looked over at Rukia "I would personally change out of that jacket before you permanently start to reek of coffee" She snickered as she looked at the doused piece of clothing.

Rukia could feel a dull ache start too built up behind her eyes and she was reminded of her ruined jacket. "Ugh" she whined . " My dry cleaner is going to love this one."

Momo took a deep sensible breath . " Send him the bill." She shrugged. " I mean he was the one who ran over you."

Nanao gave the small woman a level gaze . " You cannot send one of the most eligible bachelors in Tokyo a dry cleaning bill because he ran over you."

"Why not?" The woman countered " I mean he did, ruin a six thousand dollar suit hell I would send him the bill to get the entire suit replaced." She said practically.

"I wouldn't" Nanao said

" I so would." Momo said

"I can't." Rukia said with a self deprecating laugh

Both women looked at her rather confused.

" I gave him all my information when I gave him my business card for Shinhoin Industries."

Both woman and her mother looked at her like she was out of her mind for doing that.

"Why?" Nanao asked truly perplexed.

Rukia shrugged helplessly. "I don't know." She looked down at the cuff of her soggy sleeve and started to pick at it . " I wasn't thinking."

"Obviously" Nanao scoffed.

Rukia looked up at her and frowned a little. "This time he ,well , he seemed nice and I didn't see the harm in it at the time."

Tilting her head to the side Nanao gave her friend a almost pitying look. " It's your life hun , just remember he was the one who slept with your sister."

"Exactly, I am just Mastumoto's dorky younger sister ." She looked down at her coffee soaked self with another self deprecating smile. "I'm invisible to men like that."

"You're a dork alright." Momo said dryly. " A delusional dork , but a dork none the less because even when you look like a dorky matron your still you and some of what you are does show through and you attract people like magnets. Why do you think your business went so well?"

Rukia wrinkled her nose . " Because I was half naked?"

"No you dork!" You have clients that actually liked you and took the time to get to know you and finance you . We do pretty well , but for you to get those contracts you had to do a little more than well and I know for damn sure the only ass hole you slept with was Shuuhei and he did nothing for your career other than bitch."

"Ugh" Rukia pulled her hair out of her hair face and stretched out. " I'm over this conversation for now."

Both women rolled their eyes at her , and at that point she could really careless it wasn't even three yet and it already felt like she had been up all day and all night . Bed sounded so good to her however bed was not something she was going to see in the near future . Zoning out for more than a long moment she look idly around the coffee house. She was in a coffee house and didn't have coffee there was definitely something wrong with this picture.

Looking back over at the two women she smiled happily as she watched Momo start to get more comfortable with her mother. She had a feeling Momo would really like her mother immediately , most people did because no matter what life had thrown at the woman she had handled it with grace and kindness. Sighing softly Rukia could only wish she could be more like her mother in that respect life had been fairly kind to her and yet she felt like she had become as cold as ice.

Leaning back she tilted her head to the side and looked at her friend Ise and couldn't help but wonder , had she really become old a frumpy in her personal life? Taking another long breath she looked over to Momo was she really that much of a dork? And what did happen to that woman that had so much self confidence ,since when had she been one to hide when she had a job to do ? When had she become someone who had hide from anything in her personal life? She took over entire companies for goodness sakes , and she was hiding with her tail between her legs all because she had to deal with one jack ass she could eat a live for a few hours. She then looked down at her sleeve and shook her head and since when did she get so flustered she ran away from people?

Wrinkling her nose she picked at the sleeve of her jacket the sticky coffee had started to congeal in the sleeve and it was not a pretty sight. Looking over to Ise and Momo she look fairly un amused.

"Do either of you want to go shopping with me I really do need to get something to wear this evening that isn't frumpy." She gave Momo a pointed look.

"Oooh shopping." Nanao smiled brightly. " I'm game."

They both looked over to Momo waiting for her to answer only to get a slight blush. "I have homework I have to do." She said sheepishly trying hard not to smile as she diverted her gaze to her now empty coffee cup.

Her mother raised an eyebrow with a slight smirk knowing when to call bull shit on someone. " Just homework sweetie?"

The all watched Momo bush fiercely into her cup. "Fine Toshiro is taking me out to an early dinner before work."

"Oooooooh , Momo has a boyfriend." Nanao laughed good naturedly.

"I do not! We are just having dinner." She looked helplessly at all the women. "And , that , is , it." She looked around again defensively. " Really."

Rukia could help laugh."Okay." She snorted " We all totally believe you."

"It's so a date." Nanao smirked.

Momo's eye's shifted around to all three women and gave them a screw you all look which caused them all to laugh, and Momo to scowl harder.

"But seriously." Rukia said with some irritation "If I don't get out of this jacket soon I'm going to scream." She looked over to Nanao. "Ready to do some damage to my pocket book "

The other woman smirked darkly ." I love it when you talk dirty to me Rukia."

"Yes Ise , I know the size of my pocket book impress's you." She couldn't help but giggle at that

After some quick hugs and good buys Rukia left her mother and Momo to themselves because neither woman felt like getting dragged around town as the other two women went on a wild search for the perfect dress.

They agreed to go back to Rukia's house so that she could get changed and change car's so that they would look less conspicuous besides that it was six different kinds of expensive to get the oil changed on that damn car. Looking down at the digital clock she groaned to herself it was already four it felt like her day was slowly melting away she had never been one to count down hours but it was four hours before she would have to meet Miyako at the Four Seasons . She would beat her head into the steering wheel if she were not driving.

She pulled into the garage of her building and watched as Ise followed her and parked in the lot she paid for. Rukia had to smirk they were together so much the they each had they key to the others apartment and their own parking spaces.

Removing her sunglass's she stepped out of the car and let her eyes adjust to the dim light of the garage and watched Ise slowly get out of her Mercedes and blink a few times trying to adjust to the light much like Rukia had .

"You do know you drive like a bat out of hell in that car right?"

She watched the woman look over at her with a very un amused expression and a little huff as she pulled her shoulder back up her shoulder.

Rukia smirked and evil little smirk. " You just don't know to enjoy what you drive."

Ise hnned and rolled her eyes. "No I just want to keep my license."

All Rukia could do was shrug her shoulders because it was true perhaps she did drive a bit to fast and she had a bad tendency of running red lights in the middle of the nights when she knew no one was looking. Yawning she ran her hands through her hair and shook her head trying to wake herself up a little as they walked to the elevator.

Ise let out a soft worried breath as she looked Rukia over carefully "Are you sure you're going to be able to make it through tonight without falling asleep in some corner?"

"I will be able to do it , if not that is what red bulls are good for." She smiled impishly.

Shaking her head again Ise rolled her eyes. " Those are so not healthy for you."

As they entered the elevator Rukia gave her friend a very dead pan look. "You should be talking."

Ise rolled her eyes. " yeah but I don't drink them like water."

The elevator door dinged for the first floor and the door slowly opened to the lobby.

"I don't either." She said defensively hugging her briefcase closer to her chest.

As they walked in the door man in the lobby cleared his throat. "Miss Rukia."

"Oh." She smiled apologetically" I'm sorry Mei for not saying hello I did not see you." She frowned deeply. " that is so unlike me."

The man gave a sincere chuckle and waved her away. "I just want to inform you , you have received a gift." He smiled broadly at the two women

Rukia looked over to Ise who shrugged her shoulders . " I don't know who has enough of a death wish to send you a gift at home?"

Sighing deeply at her friends comment she turned back to the door man with a rather confused expression. "Okey hit me with it." She said with a hint of caution in voice causing Mei to simply smile as he pulled out a rather large cut crystal vase filled with a dozen perhaps two of the palest pink roses with scatterings of lily of the valley running through them . The arrangement took Rukia's breath away they were absolutely beautiful even when she was with Shuuhei she had never gotten anything this beautiful.

"Who?" she looked at the man rather confused.

He just shrugged "Lady Shinhoin's assistant brought them over about an hour ago."

Rukia looked back up an Ise who looked equally confused but shrugged her shoulders

The older man chuckled and handed the vase to Rukia. " Enjoy them Miss it isn't everyday a woman get a gift this beautiful and I have seen a many gifts pass through those doors."

Smiling gently she took the heavy vase from Mai and felt almost giddy who would possibly give her a gift like this . " Thank you Mai." She smile and the man just shook his head and chuckled a bit as the two women walked to the elevator door.

As the door slid shut quietly both women looked at there reflections in the polished silver doors for a long moment.

"It's beautiful." She said honestly

Ise nodded her head and looked over the arrangement carefully. "That it is , but who would give something like that to you at your home residence ." she bit her lower lips softly and looked a bit worried. " I mean your office yes I can see that , but almost no one knows where you live and that certainly doesn't look like something your mother would give you.

She furrowed her brow having not thought about that before because really only a select few knew where she actually resided and none of them would send her something this official or expensive looking. "It could be Yoruichi?" she shrugged. " I mean we did just close that huge deal and she knows I would never gloat over it."

Nanao snorted. " That woman is far from subtle she would be throwing an office party in your honor and you know it."

The door slid open to her floor with a gentle whooshing noise and both of them departed the elevator. "Your right." She let out an exasperated breath as she struggled with the vase and fumbled for her keys in her purse so she could open her front door.

Without saying a word Nanao took it and Rukia out her keys by the oversized hot pink head of the Chappy the other woman had given her for that exact purpose.

"On the bright side it's no mystery there are two cards attached to it."

Rukia looked over the large arrangement carefully. She hadn't noticed one card , let alone a second one.

"Two?"

Nanao nodded and plucked both letters out of the plants after she set it on the coffee table. "which one do you want first , the one that looks like it came with the arrangement or the other one."

"I'll pick the one that looks like it actually came with it." This seemed to make the most sense. Shrugging her shoulders Nanao handed Rukia a light pink envelope with a silver seal. Opening it carefully she arched her eyebrow and she pulled out a piece of off white linen paper.

_Rukia, It has been a great many years since we have seen each other and I found our encounter to be a most pleasant surprise_ (Rukia eyed the letter suspiciously) _I know we did not leave on the best of terms or on any terms for that matter due to the nature of the then current situation . So I wanted to send you a sort of peace offering and an apology for my deplorable behavior _( Shit , she thought to herself without having to read who sent it she knew who it was.) _I also wanted to an extend an offer for lunch if you so do wish as a peace offering for running over you and spilling coffee all over you. So I have inserted my business card in this letter if you wish to get back to me._

_Kuchiki , Byakuya_

"For as smooth as everyone claims this man to be" Nanao said with a smirk. "He sound socially retarded."

Rukia couldn't help but choke out a laugh because it was true for as smooth and slick as this man was this letter didn't show him at his most eloquent. So Rukia just shrugged her shoulders. " Normally he is" she said with a bit of confusion.

"But how in the hell did he get your home address if you only gave him your business card." Nanao looked at the vase now as if it would explode at any moment.

Letting out a deep breath Rukia held out her hand for the other card perhaps it would give her more of an explanation for this little bit of as the other woman put it social retardation.

"Are you sure you want to read this letter?"

Rukia nodded uneasily and nodded her head. " It could offer up an explanation for this."

Opening up the other letter that was in a plain violet envelope her eyes were assaulted with Yoruichi's playful bouncing hand writing. She always knew it was the other woman because of the flowing swirling script.

_Rukia! _(she could almost hear the woman chirp with mischief and excitement)

_So as I was walking out of the building this afternoon I literally ran into the poor delivery boy , so pretending to be your secretary he gave me specific directions to leave this on your desk and make sure you got these when you got into the office first thing in the morning. _

_So really I couldn't help myself because you never get anything sent here and no one knows who you are so I took the liberty of reading the card and making sure it wasn't someone undesirable sending you something that could be particularly bothersome because god knows you already have enough stress in your life . But low and behold after I read this totally socially inept and awkward letter I was delighted to see that it came from my dearest and most favorite socially inept and reclusive person in the world short of yourself (You know I love you anyway )My little Bya-bo_ (This bazaar nickname almost caused Rukia to choke because she didn't know any one that had the guts to dare to call Byakuya , Kuchiki Bya-bo) _Any who since you are my two favorite social recluses . I wanted to deliver this to you myself because this was just too good to pass up. _(she could almost see the evil purple haired woman grinning)

_By the way I would take him up on his offer for lunch the boy has really good taste and is a perfect gentleman. That and you two are just too cute _(the woman was sounding more and more like a big instigating sister by the moment)

_XOXOXOXO Your loving boss , and Kisuke . . I let him read the note too and we both unanimously agree you should take him up on the offer. _ After that there was a bizarre smiley face that was quintessentially Yoruichi and then her Husband and business partners signature.

Nanao stood there for a long moment with her mouth open looking surprised and some what confused . " Has anyone ever told you , your boss is nuts?"

Nodding her head and fighting a smile she took a deep breath to compose herself. " On a daily basis." Pausing momentarily she looked over at her friend thoughtfully. " I am really that socially inept?" She watched her friend struggle for words

Very slowly she watched her friend start to nod. "I hate to say it love but you are . How long has it been since you have been out of the house for a date or hell even for fun.

Walking over Rukia flumped on her couch starring up at the ceiling for a long moment she let out a reside sigh. "I'm going to need double sided tape and body glue if we are going to do this right." She hoisted herself on her elbows and gave Ise flat look as a look of pure agony passed the other woman's face . " And I don't want to hear about It I once spent six hours gluing individual iridescent scales on you so it would look like had a dragon wrapped around you."

"Yeah but I got paid for that." She pouted.

Rukia pointed to the closet " Look at it like this, its for the greater good of your best friend , now mush bitch." Pulling herself up off the couch she made her way into her bed room for a very long process for a very long night.

**So again I would like to thank everyone who has been reading a review it has meant a great deal to me you guys are awesome XOXOXOXOX **

**but Im wondering if I should take it in a different direction or continue the story because I haven't got much feedback on it**. **So if you all R&R that would be great and or PM me if there is something you would like to see that maybe I am missing .**


	6. Chapter 6

**So first off I would like to thank Silva , seras3791 , L , YuzurihaNoRyuu , DRUON , Mary , RunSakura ,silverqueen and Vicky73. You are all awesome opossums for R&Ring as well as everyone else who has been following along it has really meant a lot to me. **

**I would like to give a forewarning this chap is going to be extremely OOC . I just sort of used my imagination and ran with it. So I hope you all enjoy**

Byakuya straightened his tie for the umpteenth time and took a good long last look in the mirror .At thirty years old he was still what everyone would consider handsome . Hell who was he kidding he was more than just handsome ,and he had known that since birth. Letting a rare smirk cross his lips he turned away from the mirror and walked quickly out of the bathroom. So getting dressed up in a tux and going to an event should be and endless source of amusement , and after the last two days he had, had he needed a little bit of "amusement." Even though he hated the man who was throwing the party, knew some of the hottest and mindless woman in Japan would be there , and that was what he needed at this very moment a mindless fuck with a mindless twit that he could leave after it was over with, without another thought.

His encounter with Rukia who ever the fuck she was had rocked him to the core. The Rukia that ran into him and managed to lose keys with a big hot pink Chappy attached them made him smile despite himself he found her innocence to be a breath of fresh air . There was something engaging about her so much so he actually did want to have lunch with her for the sake of having lunch and getting to know her. Then , he had meet her evil twin , the devil in six inch heels and thigh highs that looked like she could eat him alive . The horny bastard in him would love every moment of it because If she could take it as well as she gave it he would make her see stars. However the kicker, the most fan fucking tastic thing about this dichotomy of a woman was she sort of looked like Hisanna. . . . Running his hands through his hair he growled , he really needed to get laid so he could get all three images out of his mind. The sinner , the saint , and his ex the bitch.

He snorted to himself as he grabbed his keys off the end table he couldn't believe that he had let himself be dragged to this nights gala . He hated Renji Abari and everything the ass hole stood for not once had he ever seen that man do anything good for society as a whole other than make the mass's idolize over paid idiots they like to call sports "Hero's." Tonight's Gala would be a waste of time even though it was for a supposed "good cause."

Normally he was more than happy to go to charity events and often times if it was a philanthropy he held dear to himself he would donate a large sum to help the cause. However tonight's cause was to show case the Japans Olympic snowboard team and help them get better equipment. Frowning deeply he couldn't help but let out another snort of disgust because those boys made more with their private sponsorships than eighty percent of the people living in Japan not to mention what the government gave them.

This wasn't a charity event, this was an overpriced party to showcase who the man represented in hope to recruit more athletes.

He just had to remember he was doing this for Miyako's. . . . . his thoughts ran back to their conversation earlier that he had so conveniently forgotten . He was doing this for her sick amusement because little Miss Rukia X was going to be there . So much for trying to get away from female incarnate of Yamamoto , but at least tonight she would be clothed.

Reaching the door he took one last look at the clock eight thirty , perfect , right on time .

Slipping behind the wheel of his Mercedes he let out a content sigh as he pressed the ignition and listen to the finely crafted machine purr to life. He wasn't much of a car man but it had become his baby much like time this was a finely oiled cog . It was neat ,organized . smooth, classic and clean there wasn't a French fry between the seats to be found . It was a reflection of himself it was neat as a pin and made for precision.

Most people would call him cold and uncaring and ass hole was often associated with his name, heartless bastard was also popular too amongst his secretaries and paralegal, but he suspected that was because of his one indiscretion with one of the younger ones. He quickly dismissed her after he realized he was out of his mind and going through a quarter life crisis. He thought he was doing a good thing by "dismissing her with diamonds." He thought they were an appropriate parting gift to at least try to make her feel at least somewhat less used.

He wasn't what you would call a serial dater , but he was known to have a revolving door . That reputation didn't mean much to him because let's face it a man has needs, and most of the woman that had passed those doors had little to no substance so there really want not much use to keep them around. The only thing that really kept him in check was when he thought about what his mother would have said about his behavior if she had been alive . He chose to push that thought of his head for the moment. Tonight was not a night to think about what his mother would or would not say about his personal quirks.

The car cruised smoothly along the flat plane of the freeway lulling him into a state of clam, he was tired of being wound up tighter than a clock and the last few days he felt like a spring ready to pop. Even though spending time Miyako and Kaien that morning had put him a little more at ease , he still felt ready to snap on some poor unsuspecting soul. Ultimately though if it hadn't been for that damn little woman he ran over, if it weren't for her little bit of softness that he glimpsed through her over whelming nervousness someone would have probably ended up crying by now.

Shifting thoughts faster than the bullet train he smile a bit he really did hope that she enjoyed the flowers that he had sent to her. He had hand pieced together the entire arrangement himself every flower he found reminded him of her even the crystal vase he picked reminded him of her. When he saw her he had been reminded of how cruel he had let Matsumoto treat her so even the flowers had a careful meaning . He silently wondered if she smart enough to have picked up on that? After doing a bit of searching he had found the softest color pink rose he could find because it reminded him of the light dusting of pink her cheeks turned when she first saw him the lily's had reminded him of the soft whiteness of her skin ,and the cut crystal vase reminded him of her smile with the way the light had reflected from it seemed to light up the area around it. In the end he was genuinely happy to see that she had managed to do well for herself and really did hope she would call him so they could catch up.

The drive had gone fast , to fast in his opinion now as he looked up at the four seasons hotel and felt a deep distain wash over him . Pulling into the car port at the hotel entrance he let out a board yawn as he opened the door and step out . Carelessly he dropped the keys into the valets hand not even really bothering or caring to see who the person was that was now taking possession of the his car. He looked passed the glass entrance to the more than extravagant lobby of the hotel and fought off the nagging irritation he was starting to between his shoulders.

" If you can't drive stick find someone else to drive the car I don't want the gears stripped." He told the person coldly with his back to them as he regretfully made his way to the entrance. He still had no idea why he caved to Miyako this morning.

Walking coolly into the opulent lobby he spotted Miyako looking flawless as ever in a black iridescent evening gown that brushed the floor lightly hiding the very high heels that he knew were giving her the little extra hight she was always bitching that she didn't have. He had to smile internally because he had never known her to ever go out to a formal event without the heels. Then half way through the night she would bitch that her feet hurt and would then curs society and its unrealistic expectations that were foisted upon women to meet an unobtainable standard of beauty. Then she would curse her mother's gene pool for causing her to be so short.

He realized again why he came to these events because no matter how unpleasant they were was he would never abandon this sweet woman , and would do whatever it took be as good a friend to her as she had been to him. He was even known to have let her take off her shoe's and rest her bare feet on his wile they danced so she would look less miserable and be more appealing to her potential clients. He and Kaien would take turns doing this for her , not because she was too heavy to support , but she always weaseled her way into dancing with her two "most favorite men in the entire world" As she put it.

For the very briefest of moments he felt his heart constrict because she would return the favor of letting him dance with her when Hisanna was either not there or being petulant and sulking in a corner. She had a wonderful way of making he and Kaien look less like the bastards they were personified so their clients would not become un nerved by their cold persona.

"Smile my Byakuya-kun." She giggled as she walked over to meet him half way with her arms out stretched for a hug. "Someday your face is going to permanently stay like that." She smile sweetly as they she embraced. "Thank you." She whispered in his ear.

Extending her to arms length so he could get a good look at her he nodded in approval "You know I would never miss something important to you." He said quietly

" I know." She smiled cheekily.

He felt his heavy hand on his shoulder. "Are you flirting with my wife Kuchiki?" The words came out good naturedly , but still caused Byakuya look over at his friend with an un amused expression.

Miyako gave her husband an exasperated look and slapped him on the shoulder. "You're going to get him to trouble someday love."

Kaien shrugged again with a natural smile that graced his lips when the situation called for it.

"You know Kaien someday I just might." He said giving both of them his most devilish smirk causing all three of them to laugh. It was a long running joke the three of them had , had for more year than they could count, but in the end he had no desire for Miyako , never had ,never will and she had no desire for him either.

"But you do look stunning as ever." Byakuya lavished the woman with the compliment and watched her piff it away.

"Stop being nice I'm still covering up the extra baby weight I had gained." She said grumpily

"Your still look beautiful as ever to me ." Kaien leaned over and kissed his wife on the cheek. "And that is all that matters."

Byakuya watched as the woman looked up at her husband lovingly not saying a word but saying everything at the same time. In the back of his mind he wished he had what they had and was capable of that kind of love again.

"Please stop" he said coolly " Your embarrassing yourselves, and me." He said sternly.

Both of his friends looked up at him with amusement clearly able to see through his bullshit.

He then watched as Miyako took a deep breath and look extremely un amused at the ballroom door that lead into the party she had organized. "Our public awaits."

The words came out dry and sarcastic , but he knew that as soon as they passed through those doors. She would be all smiles and well wishes. He knew she loved what she did even if it did cause to her to act like she had multiple personalities at times.

Rubbing her hands together to remove the slight chill Byakuya knew the cold room was giving her she smiled genuinely. " But I am excited to see Rukia tonight it has been way to long since we have talked and I did enjoy her company when we crossed paths." She looked over at both mean with a soft smile "Despite what you two saw last night she really is a sweet woman." She looked to almost be pleading with both men to believe her.

Byakuya just shrugged. "Time will tell."

He watched the woman give him one last worried look before her husband opened the door for her and a big fake smile wash over her pretty features as she greeted people she knew right off the bat.

Tonight will be a long night he groaned to himself as he followed the couple into the moderately lighted ball room.

.

.

.

Nanao looked over Rukia in amazement she knew the woman could flaunt it if she wanted to , but she had no idea that her little friend would ever have the guts to flaunt so outrageously. Fully clothed the woman was far from the frumpy little thing that she got used to seeing every day because she knew that Rukia owned more than tee-shirts , jeans and over sized sweaters . She also knew that the woman had an extensive closet that had probably every piece of clothing ever made in it , but to actually see her in it was a completely different story. All she could do was look at Rukia in awe.

Twirling around to face Nanao she watched as the slight train of the satin silver dress wrapped around her ankles .

"So how do I look?" She asked as she bit her lip with a bit of uncertainty

"Expensive." Was the only word she could think of , her dear friend must have had on a hundred thousand if not more dollars worth of diamond jewelry on. From full diamond chandler earrings , to an intricately designed diamond cuff bracelet and a necklace that had to have at least seven or eight carts worth of diamonds on it. Her hair was pulled up in a delicate twist design that was held together with little crystal hair pins that shown like stars in her thick black tress's.

"I'm happy I had the double sided tape." Rukia stated as she turned to look at her profile in a full length mirror.

"Your dress wouldn't have stay on if you didn't ."

Rukia turned and gave her a dry look and shrugged at the honesty of it. The dress had no back what so ever . The only thing that held the dress to her torso were thin silver chains that made little arm holes truly giving the dress the illusion of no back. The front wasn't much better the bust was a scoop neck that draped passed her cleavage showing no cleavage but just the barest hint of skin.

"Do you realize how much tape a glue we have used to secure into this dress." Nanao said a bit of mirth.

"Enough to glue a small child to a wall" Rukia said with a laugh

All Nanao could to was snort and let out a laugh in vain.

Rukia turned around and looked at her back in the mirror . Nanao had created a master piece on her back using god known's how many pink, black ,and white crystals she laid the image of sakura branch complete with flowers and buds that expanded her entire back from tail bone to shoulder blade.

"You look beautiful." Nanao said with full honesty.

Rukia smiled softly at her friends honest compliment " Thank you ." letting out a soft sigh she turned to face her best friend. "I'm nervous." A look of worry crossed her face. " I haven't been out like this in three years." Her little omission almost made her cry.

Nanao walked up to her and rested a hand on her shoulder because she was to afraid to huge her and risk ruining all the work they had done. " You are beautiful , and smart , and talented Rukia." Her words came out firm yet gentle. "Don't ever forget that no matter how much of an ass some of them will be to you. I have faith in you, that you can do this. You have come too far to let anyone tear you down."

Rukia took a deep breath and nodded her head pulling strength from her friends words. " Thank you Ise that means the world to me." She looked down at the clock and chuckled ." Well it's time."

Both woman walked to the door and Rukia turned to her friend. " Well here goes nothing."

.

,

.

Rukia made it to the four seasons in record time , but then again it was because she wasn't paying much attention to how high the little orange marker went on her speedometer. Judging on the amount of time it took her to get from her down town apartment to the Four Seasons she was guessing it was somewhere around the hundred mile and hour mark. Nanao was really right someday she would get her license taken away from her if anyone managed to catch her.

She had to giggle though she had gotten caught once for going way passed the legal limit , but the cop had just seen her rather graphic spread in one of the men's magazines and couldn't hold an coherent sentence if he wanted to. She had dodged that ticket with a little giggle and a promise that she would never ever go that speed again.

Stepping out of her BMW she tossed the keys to the valet with a smile and a wink leaving the poor boy with his jaw on the floor in disbelief at who had just thrown her keys at him. Putting a little sway into her step she put on her most sultry smile. She was once told the world is a stage and we are all merely actors, and it was true she just had to fall into character. Walking to the door she let a slow smirk cross her lips as she watched the bell boys eyes bug out of his head. It was hilarious to her sometimes that with the flick of a mental switch and a little attention she could feel like the sex goddess people assumed she was. Nanao was right she was not the same girl she was three years ago because she had reached a point in her life where men like Renji Abari couldn't touch her because ultimately she knew the truth in who and what she was.

Pausing briefly at the front desk she asked and aww struck girl where the Olympic charity event was being held. Stumbling over her words the girl pointed towards two large double doors that had a sign in front of it that said " Dare to Dream" She couldn't help but let out an audible snort at cheesiness of the name of the event.

As she rest her hand on the door knob she put a sultry half smirk half smile on her face and opened the door. Tonight the world would truly be her stage.

Miyako had really out done herself the room was very beautifully done it was a beautiful winter scene that would be sure to put everyone in jovial giving spirit for Abari's cause. Looking around the room she saw a good many people that she knew that she had either danced for or had in some way shape or form entertained . This might not be so bad after all , she might not even have to deal with the ass hole himself if she stuck with the proper group of people.

Making her way further into the room she smiled at the boy who was running around with a tray of champagne . Picking up one delicately she took a small sip and looked around the room once more and smiled as she saw one of her favorite people in the world walking towards her .

His name was Ukitake Jushiro a man that she had known for a great many years . He had actually been a mentor to her when she was in university . He was first her teacher then her benefactor and despite the large age gap between them he was the one man she had ever taken as a lover, but most of all he was a long time friend . She had to smile despite being well into his forties he was an extremely attractive man. Most men who had white hair would look old however on this man in particular it made him look distinguished beyond his age. It also helped that she had seen what was underneath the tux as well.

Smiling as he walked towards her he reached out his hand in greeting.

" Rukia my darling. I did not expect to see you here this evening." Looking her over with a more than approving smile he gave her hand a gentle squeeze. " Are you here for work or pleasure?"

"More so pleasure." She said with a soft affectionate smile as she leaned over kissing him on the cheek. As she pulled away she could see he arched his dark eyebrow with some amusement.

" But I thought you and Abari had a mutual." He looked to be looking for a proper word . "Disrespect." He said diplomatically.

" You are right I do not care for him in the least , but I am here to support our good friend Miyako Shiba." She said as she took the arm that he had extended to her.

He looked around the room with mild interest. " This room does look like it has her touch added to it." Tucking her hand into the crook of his arm her patted it gently . "We should go find her and tell her what a good job she has done for the ungrateful brat."

She had to smirk her dear friend held about as much respect for Renji as she did . Falling into easy step with him she smile and relaxed a bit. " I think we should it has been age's since I have seen her and it will be good to catch up."

.

.

,

Sipping his second glass of champagne Byakuya let his gaze flicker around the room to see if there was anyone else there he knew short of his best friend and his wife because he truthfully didn't know if he would recognize this Rukia woman with her clothes on that's assuming she was properly dressed .

As he glanced around the room distastefully his frown depend , he had only been at the party for an hour and already he had been hit on by silicone Barbie's that were shrink wrapped into their dress .Normally that wouldn't bother and him and on occasion it would make him smile , but the sad thing was he had to wonder if some of them where out passed their bed times.

"You know you really didn't have to be so mean to that last one." Miyako said dryly.

He looked down and arched his eyebrow at her innocently. " I was nice." He said blithely taking a sip of his drink.

"You asked when her curfew was." Her words came out flat as Kaien started to snicker somewhere behind them.

"It was a viable question ." he fought down an ever growing smirk. "When you asked her how old she was and she said she was eighteen .I just remember when you where eighteen you had one."

The small woman gave him a withering look . " I should know better than to take you into polite company."

"You live , you lean." He said carelessly fighting back the smile that was growing on his lips as she gave him a death glair.

"Someday you're going to get yours Kuchiki." She said as she flicked him sharply in the stomach causing him to cough on his drink.

His voice dropped a few octaves and looked out over the room with a predatorily smile "Oh I could get all I wanted tonight if I wanted."

Putting her head in her hands she shook her head "I really should have known better than to make that comment." She looked over to husband " Do I need to put him on a leash tonight." She glanced back over Byakuya who was now looking over the crowd with a mission clearly visible on his face.

Kaien looked over at Byakuya and shook his head. " No my dear tonight we should let him be."

Miyako shrugged her delicate shoulders lightly the scanned the crowd herself. "I wonder where Rukia is ?" she said curiously.

Hopefully she backed out. Byakuya thought darkly to himself as he drained the rest of his second glass of champagne. Looking around the room boardly and picking up another glass of the too sweet to weak liquor that was being served he narrowed his eyes . Perhaps he had acted harshly toward the young girl that come around for all he knew she really could have been fun . But in truth he was not in the mood for a child this night he was more interested in finding a woman, and then he found her. From behind she was the most interesting creature he had laid eyes on this evening. Though a little short it was the completely bare form of her back that had drawn his gaze to her. Her body was art in motion initially it was the expansive and intricate design of a sakura branch done in crystals that spanned the smooth silky surface that had caught his eye , but when he saw her walk he saw her true skill in motion. She didn't so much as walk but more glide with a sultry sway to her hips . Not overly seductive , but subtle , confidant and judging by the rest of her outfit extremely bold .There weren't many woman that would have the guts to wear something that exposed so much and so little at the same time. He watched her pick up another glass of champagne from a passing waiter and tilt her head back looking to laugh at something her white haired companion said.

He frowned to himself , she had a companion. Mentally he shrugged his shoulders and smirked he could remedy that easy enough women like her did not stay with older. . . . . His thoughts trailed off and almost blanked as the white haired gentleman turned around , this supposed old man turn out to be none other than his good friend Ukitake Jushiro. Byakuya blinked at his friend the woman at his side had to be twenty years his junior at least. He didn't put it passed the man he knew it was possible for him to do it but . . . He hit a mental block again. . . It was so unlike him.

Taking another long sip of his drink he turned to Kaien.

"It's Ukitake." He said as coolly as he possible could still being as he was a little shocked at the odd sight in front of him because if he knew anything about Jushiro he was one of the chivalrous respectful men he had ever met.

Kaien turned to where Byakuya was looking and nodded his head with a smirk. " So it is." The man let out a low chuckle. " With a companion." He looked up to Byakuya with a more than amused expression. "interesting" He smirked and looked back to the couple. " I never took him to be a man like that."

Those words happened to capture Miyako's quickly wondering attention. " Took who to be what?" she ask curiously as she looked up to the two men.

Byakuya gestured to his older friend and his companion and heard Miyako let out a happy gasp.

"Rukia!" her voice raised over the crowd as she raised her hand to get the small woman's attention.

Byakuya watched in slow motion as the woman turned around at the call of her name with a cool almost cold expression that quickly melted into something considerably more friendly.

"She looks fantastic." She looked up to husband excitedly.

The woman that started to walk over to them looked more than fantastic she was as Byakuya has thought before artistry in motion. Gone was the glittering goddess from the night before and in her place stood a subtly refined woman who moved with ease ,grace and oozed confidence that he now knew he had only hit the tip of the ice berg the night before.

His friend leaned over to him with a wicked grin. " Your fucked." He whispered.

Even though fully clothed and respectful she looked more naked than she had the night before .Her silver gown fit her like a second skin. The pale silver color almost blended into her own skin tone it was meant to make one's mind wonder leading them to believe that the only thing she had on where the sparkling diamonds that adorn her body. Looking directly her he smirked at her predatorily letting the edges of lips curve just slightly .As she looked over the group her eyes met his briefly returning the smile in kind and at the moment he knew he wanted her. For all this woman looked like his bitch of an x wife she was not . Hisanna had never looked at him, like she would eat him alive . Certainly not the way Rukia did the night before like she knew she owned him and he could not let that happen again. He was always on top. Letting the gentleman in him be damned the game was on.

He watched as she walked quickly across the room with his friend politely in toe.

"Miyako." She smiled brightly and hugged his friend giving her a quick kiss on the cheek then looked around. " This place looks amazing."

Miyako smiled and blushed prettily. " You think?" she wrinkled her nose. " It's been so long I didn't know if I still had it left in me ." she turned and smiled lovingly up at her husband. "My guys have been keeping me pretty busy I almost forgot what it was like to be in the company of adults." She glanced over to Byakuya and her husband. " And those two don't count as adults."

It amazed Byakuya to watch the small woman laugh prettily and shake her head." Aren't all of them just big kids , only with fast cars."

Miyako laughed and nodded her head.

" I hardly think that is fair for you to say my dear." Ukitake spoke up and tucked Rukia's hand back into the crook of his with an endearing smile .

"Then I would really like you to explain Shunsui to me last night."

"That was because he was with his dear Nanao-chan."

Byakuya watched as his good friend looked down Rukia with an indulgent smile . He couldn't believe it this man was treating her like she was as docile as a kitten

"So it looks as if you know all of my boy's" Miyako look like cat about ready to pounce.

Byakuya watched as she turned to him with a dark little smile "if I didn't know them I got to know them quiet well last night."

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.

Rukia curved her lips in a direct challenge to Byakuya as the words came tumbling out of her mouth almost daring him to elaborate on "How well " they got to know each other .Looking deep into her eyes he smiled back at her when suddenly she felt a hand slap to her ass followed by a loud crack causing her to snap out of her trans as the rush of the sharp sting ran through her body.

"No doubt using all her of little whore tricks."

Her stomach rolled as she smelled the distinct sent of gin roll out of a mouth that was now dangerously close to her ear. Fighting every urge to turn around and slap the voice stupid she willed her body to be clam.

"isn't that right sweet heart."

Renji Abari's voice rolled over her skin like a thousand alcohol soaked spiders. Everyone in the little group that she was standing in stood stark still and silent .

She would not let this man get to her , she would not let this man get to her . SHE WOULD NOT LET THIS MAN GET TO HER ! her mind screamed as she felt his hand slide down along the curve of her butt. Forcing a smile to grace her lips she shrugged lightly .

"If It works." She turned back to look at him with a slight giggle fighting back the knots that where twisting around in her stomach because she would not give this man the satisfaction of skittering away from him

Turning her head back to the small group with a more self assured smile "We all have to sing for our supper somehow don't we ?" It physically pained her to watch each member of the group laugh uncomfortably . " Some of us just do it better than others."

Stepping away from both men she was standing next to she casually looked around. " And I see you are getting better at it Abari." Making a direct effort to look around the room with a slightly less than amused smirk " But I see you haven't gotten as good at whoreing yourself as I have though seeing as your are forced to now start to bribe your clients by throwing such a lavish gala. I thought by now you would having them coming to you with the sponsor me video's , but I see you still have that charming way with words so actions work more in your favor." She heard Miyako gasp lightly from somewhere around her and she could immediately kick herself for her bold actions against this repulsive man.

"Well my dear I don't have the luxury of showing my tits and ass as bait , I actually have to work for it. However." He gently stroked his hand down her the back of her neck to the base of her spine "after the party is over I might be able to negotiate what I am paying you to grace us." He looked her up and back down salaciously " With your lovely ass- ets."

Before Rukia could open her mouth to respond she heard a deep voice clear his throat.

"Its is good as ever to see you again Renji."

She heard Byakuya's voice ring hard and cold making her unsure if she should flee now and save herself from his possible insults or wait it out.

"I am happy to see that I do not have to introduce you to my guest seeing as you two are already acquainted, You should be happy that you have such a lovely guest gracing your gala. I mean it really is about who you know and if I am not mistaken Shizuka-san is one of the most well known faces in the room "

Rukia held her breath as Byakuya looked at the man as if to challenge him to say any more .

There was a dark high pitched giggle behind all of them .

"Oh Byakuya –kun I always knew there was a chivalrous soft spot in you , even for sluts." The words came out dripping with venom.

Rukia rolled her eye's and let out a deeply un amused chuckle this wasn't the first time and this certainly wouldn't be the last time she was called a slut. Pinching the bridge of her nose in to relive the ever growing head ache she turn around to see who the extremely obnoxious voice was coming from.

"Thats original." She stated flatly as she looked into the eyes of what could almost be a carbon copy of herself. The carbon copy she assumed to be Hisanna hissed in disgust when Rukia locked eyes with her.

The woman turned to Renji with a faux pout " I can't believe they actually say I resemble this little piece of trash . I'm actually quite insulted." The words came out maliciously.

Rukia Hmmed and wrinkled her nose "You don't really look like me all of these years of gold digging have obviously caused you a great amount of stress and the crow's feet are starting to show around your eyes." Taking a sip of her drink she tilted her head to the side. " You know if you want I know a great plastic surgeon that some of the girls I know go to that could give you Botox to fill them out and it might actually come out looking natural."

She chuckled darkly as the color drained from Hisanna's face and her hands started to shake in anger causing Rukia to shrug her shoulders lightly. " You never know looking a little more plastic they may stop them from comparing you to me and just say , wow Rukia's mother sure is ageing gracefully." It took everything she had to keep from laughing as she heard a sharp gasp come from the woman.

"You little bitch." Hisanna spat taking a few menacing steps towards Rukia.

"If the shoe fit's." the words came out angry and dark.

Rukia step away quickly as Renji lunged and her trying to grab her upper arm. Looking at the man with a a large of amount of disgust and self control she stared at him coldly for a long moment daring him to try one thing stupid .

Looking around at the group she frowned softly this was not the way she wanted the night to turn out for Miyako so turning she sigh apologetically ."With as much fun as I think I could have had tonight I can only be so self deprecating before even I can't take it anymore, so i think I am going to save your night and take my leave." She turned to Ukitake with a soft smile "it was good seeing you again old friend I do hope we can have coffee some time soon." She looked to Miyako and smile apologetically. " I am truly sorry and I will call you and we will find a way to make this right" Turning to Byakuya she smiled a wicked little smile and raised her glass. " This could have been a fun little game , but I think we will have to call it a draw because I am sure it is far from over." Chuckling she winked and blew him a kiss like the night she first saw him as she stepped into her Lamborghini.

Turning she moved coolly out of the room taking her time making sure each and every one of them knew she was not ashamed of who she was , and scurrying to get away from the two people that had insulted her so horribly.

Making her way into the lobby she shook her head.

"Mother fucker" she whispered to herself as she thought about Abari's words.

"I wasn't that bad."

The voice from behind her jolted her from her thoughts and almost made her jump out of her skin with surprise. Turning around she saw a pair of very amused grey eyes staring down at her. She did not need this at the moment she was too tired to play mind judo. Opening her mouth to say something bitchy before she could get the words out she felt him tilt her head up and give her a slow long luscious kiss sending an entirely to pleasant jolt of electricity from her lips to the tips of her toe's and back causing her breath to catch in her throat.

Pulling away she watched as a completely satisfied smirk spread across his heavenly lips.

"Check mate"

He whispered with a smirk and turned and walked away leaving her in the lobby to stunned to move.

**So , I hope you all liked the chapter once I got rid of the writer's block it was actually quite fun to write , but I do have to apologize to all of you who like Renji I happen to think he is and incredibly sweet character but it was too good not to make him the bad guy in this one.**

**Any who please press the little button at the bottom and R&R and tell me what you think . Like it , Love it , Think it needs work give it to me people : )**

**P.S I am looking for a beta reader and am not quite sure how to go about getting one . So if you any of you would be interested or happen to know a good send me a PM because I have been noticing a lot of little mistakes I make after the fact :/ **


	7. Chapter 7

**As always I would like to start off with a thank you for everyone who has been reading and reviewing you guys are totally awesome. As well I found a Beta read who is more than awesome and we are going over the story from beginning to end checking for continuity and making some small changes so if you happen to see chapters deleted and reposted all at once no I'm not trying to spam I promise .**

Minding my business, I was doing my dance  
Got my attention, so I gave him a chance (Wait a minute)  
Did I mention he was buying a bar?  
Gave him my number, he was trying so hard (Wait a minute)  
Bought me some things I didn't want, didn't need  
Dropped down his jeans like I'm supposed to drop to my knees (Wait a minute) – Pussycat Dolls

Rukia walked into her flat and practically threw her keys at the side table in pure frustration and exasperation and watched them bounce off the end table with a clatter and onto the floor . Looking down at them contemptuously she glared and left them where they fell.

"Who the hell does he think he is!" she yelled at nothing in particular. Growling ,she made her way across the living room her heels making angry little clacking noises as she reached the door to her room.

"Just what kind of man thinks he can walk up and kiss me . . . I mean it's me for gods sakes most men turn to jell-o at the thought of me." she said arrogantly to herself . "And he just walked up like he owned the joint, like me owned ….. ME!..." She huffed "That will never do . I don't care who he is he is not that damn good."

Kicking one of her heels towards her closet she stood lopsided with her hands on her hips in pure arrogant disbelief before she bent over to take the other one off in a less violent manner. Tossing her little and extremely over priced purse on the bed she watched it vibrate silently telling her someone was trying to call . Looking down at the vibrating material she eyes it suspiciously , did she really want to see who was calling her after the disaster that just occurred. Realizing she really didn't even want to look at her phone she removed the purse from her bed and tossed it on the thick carped floor knowing the thick material would muffle it so she wouldn't have to listen to the vibrations if it went off again.

Closing her eyes she took a deep calming breath , because if she didn't she was going to explode and shred something to pieces. Rolling her shoulders to relive some tension she let out another slow breath trying her damndest center herself in the here and now. Not being able to do so she opened her eyes and walked into her bathroom and looked at herself in the mirror and sighed a miserable little sigh as she looked at the dress. Granted it was beautiful , but it was literally glued and tapped to her. Letting out a little whinny noise she wrinkled her nose like a petulant child she really didn't want to have to take off the damn thing.

"Just think of it like ripping off a band-aid Rukia." She said out loud again trying to give herself a pep talk in a vain attempt to make peeling the damn thing not so bad.

Unclasping the little silver arm holes she closed her eyes and gritted her teeth taking one last deep breath she slowly started to peel away the torso carefully so she didn't rip the material. Feeling the tape and body glue peel away slowly from her skin she could feel every gooey piece stretch before it finally decided to release its self .

"What I do for beauty." She whispered dejectedly as the torso was finally peeled completely away. By this point she was beyond tired and wanted to just crawl into bed and pull the covers over head , but that was not in her stars yet .She still had Nanao's master piece of pull off her back . She could do it the hard way like she did the dress and pick each tiny crystal off individually or she looked over at her bath tub , she could draw a bath and let herself soak all the glue and crystals off. That seemed like the best idea she was a slight masochist at time , but this was not one of them. Turning on the tap she pull out a bottle of bubble bath and dumped more than she really needed to into the quickly filling tub.

Slipping into the over full tub she sighed happily as she felt the hot water soak into her and start to relax every balled up muscle that had accrued over the last few days. Closing her eyes she let herself sink into the bubbles until the only thing that was showing was her eyes and nose. Smiling she let out a deep happy breath as she felt all the glue and adhesive start to melt off of her. Leaning her head against the head rest she looked up at the ceiling , she could stay here all night and be a happy littler camper. Taking in a deep soothing breath of the lavender bubble bath she dumped into the tube she let her minds start to wander peacefully without fighting any of her thoughts.

Breathing in and breathing out she thought about the evening. Of all of the uncomfortable , idiotic, rude shit that had occurred her thoughts had to settle on a certain pair of storm cloud grey eyes and a wicked smile the promised all sorts of delicious promises. His eyes were undeniably beautiful perhaps one of the most unusual shades of grey that she had ever seen because they were actually grey not blue grey , but just grey. What bothered her though was they were unreadable , lights where on , someone shrewd was home , but it was like there was a solid brick wall that kept you from seeing past his statuesque features and for some reason that bothered her a great deal. Because when he kissed her it was like an explosion of heat , longing , dominance and desire and none of that made any sense to her because she could see none of that when she looked at him. Frowning slightly she sank a little lower into the bath tub and furrowed her eyebrows because to her you couldn't express any of those feelings if you had no emotion. She wanted to shake him , rattle him . yell at him and ask him where it all came from.

Letting out an angry whimper she let a single tear roll down her cheek . He was the last thing she needed , because god knew all she needed was someone to walk into her life and fuck it up again . It had happened once before , and that almost killed her, and she just couldn't do it again no matter how good everyone she knew said the guy was whenever she looked at him all she saw was pain. Looking into the bubbles she couldn't help the tears that where starting to fall because she could still hear Hisagi's angry words flow through her head ….. " Slut , whore , ungrateful, conniving . " The words cut the deepest when they came from his lips the days she went to pick up the rest of her things. She knew what a lot of the world thought of her , and what she did , but on those rare days when she would be sitting in her favorite coffee shop sipping a cup of coffee she would over hear what some guy would love to do with a slut like her.

Lifting her hands out of the water to see how wrinkled they were she let her heart sink a little further in her chest. " If they only knew." Blowing some bubbles away from her nose she sat in the now tepid water . Sitting fully up she pushed the bubbles away and looked at the clock on the wall . Closeting her eyes she shook her head " Where do all the hours go.' She quietly muttered to herself. Pulling herself out of the bath tub even though she was still a little sticky she wrapped herself in a big fluffy towel and some how managed to crawl her way into the sanctuary of her bed.

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Somewhere across town Byakuya sat on his couch , alone , in the dark leaning over with his head in his hands. He couldn't believe what he had just seen and what he had just heard. He had never heard so much contempt and anger come out of two people in his entire life. He knew Hisanna was a bitch , but he never knew her to be intentionally cruel to anyone but him. Had life hardened her that much? Or had she always had the capability he was just too blind and in love to see it. Looking at her now he truly had no idea who he had married. He had been so young and idealistic so hopeful that his future would turn out as bright as his grandfathers had. He thought he would find a loving wife have a great career a few kids and live out his life in relative peace.

At twenty seven he was envying his grandfather and what he had as well as his friends around him , they were settling down having children buying houses in the good parts of town and he was still a bachelor living in a cold sterile apartment he rarely ever saw due to amount of work he buried himself in.

However in no means did he have a bad life he had a job that was fulfilling and allowed him to have the life that he had spend years and years of hard work to enjoy. Was he really enjoying life though? He spent all of his time in his office , board room or in a court room. His life revolved around his next victory who he could take down next and how far he could take the firm he had built from the ground up. To put things into perspective after Hisanna the firm had become his baby his entire life and he spent all of his time making it succeed .

Even though he had accomplished so much it all seemed to come crashing down when he saw Hisanna tonight for some reason it hurt him to see how old she looked , to see the cards that life had dealt her . She looked so gaunt and thin. She had become so wrapped up in herself that she had forgotten that at one point and time she was a natural beauty that could have had the world on a string. What really got to him though was how mean she had gotten that is what hurt the most . What also surprised him was somewhere deep down inside when he saw her tonight after she opened her mouth he was happy that he had divorced her he knew he couldn't stand to be married to a woman like that. Deep down inside he knew that he needed someone that would compliment him smooth his edges and keep him grounded when he got to out of hand which he had to admit he could turn into a royal ass hole.

The night was full of surprises. When he had agreed to go to this thing he had expected to see the woman he had seen the night before. One who was almost naked and cold as ice , he would never go so far as to call her a slut or a whore , but he certainly didn't think she would be a woman of class or substance. Hell he didn't know what to expect this was Yamamoto incarnate and molded into a woman perhaps he was expecting what he saw in Hisanna a cold ,scantily clad ,sloppy, gold digging , bitch. It never occurred to him that she could appeal to him fully dressed without seeing all of her or her face, but when she turned around to face them it was like something ignited in him and set him on fire. She was beautiful that was for sure clothed or not, but ultimately what got his attention was she held the same fire inside herself that he held. Watching her stand her ground had to be the sexiest thing he had ever seen. He wit, sarcasm and I don't give a shit attitude . The intelligence that lingered behind her eyes made him want her even more . He wanted to strip this woman down to her core and see what made her tick and then make her scream him name in submission. She brought out a fierce predator in him and for the first time in a long time he was excited to see what would happen.

Lifting his face from his hands he leaned back into his couch and smirked, she had called him out before she left it wasn't very often anyone had the guts to take the upper hand usually they just rolled over and submitted. When she walked away he actually chased after her it wasn't a want it was a need, he needed to let her know who was in charge who would always be in charge.

He didn't say a word when he stopped her in the lobby he didn't need to . Looking down into her deep purple iris made him feel like a drowning man he was lost to her and before he knew it his lips were brushing hers . It wasn't what he intended he only wanted to let her know the challenge hand not been un noticed. Yet somehow his lips where pressed against hers and for a moment his brain was blissfully blank. She felt so soft , so accommodating , pliable and it took everything in him to tear his lips away from hers and walk away. He turned away so dazed he didn't dare look back for fear she would see what she had managed to do.

Looking up at the ceiling in the dark room and sighed softly to himself it had been hours but he could still feel the taste of her on his lips. She was sweet , oh so sweet not like the sticky sweet of candy lip gloss, but a taste that was distinctly her own. She had become a drug to him just one taste wasn't enough he wanted more he wanted to see if her lips tasted like that all time . He silently wondered if it were just her lips that were sweet or if the soft delicate lines of her neck tasted the same. He never considered himself a greedy man but she was something he wanted to posses every last inch of her just so his lips would be the only ones that would be tasting her.

But as he let his mind wonder he hit the proverbial wall. She wasn't something to be possessed by anyone nore should anyone want to . She was a stripper a performer in all reality it was how she made her money. It was the allure of her to look but never touch and with the way she looked tonight the world was her play ground and everything around her was toys at her disposal. Ukitake the most stead fast honorable man he knew followed her around like a puppy, but what saw, he didn't really want to see was that the man looked like he would protect her like a pit bull and it confused him how could someone so cold and calculating bring out the protective side of one of his best friends none the less a man who wouldn't hurt a fly. How could a woman who only cared about the bottom line earn the trust of one of his most valued friends when it seemed like she was playing everyone in the room. He always consider Miyako to be a good judge of character and this woman had won his best friend over . It all just didn't make sense to him.

However nothing he did in the last few days seemed to make any sense to him shaking his head he knew he needed sleep with a good night's rest everything would look more reasonable in the morning . So dragging himself up off his couch he made his way through the dark house and uncharacteristically left his cloths in a pile on the floor at the foot of his bed and curled up under his cover letting sleep over take him.

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.

Waking easily morning looked and felt better. She had , had a full night of uninterrupted sleep no phones ringing or fax's beeping or people knocking on her door . Best of all her feet didn't hurt from having to stand in those godforsaken shoe's all night long. They made a great fashion statement but were hell on her feet . Pulling her covers up to her chin she smiled happily and wiggled around a bit , life was actually feeling pretty good today as far as she knew she had no commitments no meetings and no work so her day was completely free.

"Score." She whispered to herself with a big smile.

Taking another deep happy breath she looked into her closet that was directly across from her bed and smiled brightly, she could wear cloths she was actually comfortable in. No matter how much Nanao and Momo made fun of her she still loved her longer skirts and cardigan sweaters and there was absolutely nothing wrong with wearing sensible shoes with only a small heel . In short it felt good she didn't have to pretend to be someone she wasn't today she could just be herself plain old simple Rukia Yamamoto someone she felt like she had forgotten in the past week.

Speaking of the last week she had seriously let her work for Shinhoin industries slip. Yoruichi was extremely understanding of her situation but she still knew she had another big job to do and would not shirk her responsibilities not matter what the cost . So today would be a day of work she would catch up on everything that she had missed throughout the week and truth be told she was really looking forward to seeing how badly her boss and smooshed Gin into the ground because even though it wasn't her half sisters company it would directly affect her and for some reason that gave Rukia a sick sense of satisfaction knowing that her sisters life would be more than uncomfortable until Gin could try …. Rukia smirk darkly as she dragged herself out of bed .. Try was the operative word here to get another company off the ground that was as big as the last one. She let out a little snort because even if he did try to get another company off the ground she would smoosh that one too.

Slipping out of bed she yawned and looked down at the floor where she had thrown her purse night before so she wouldn't have to hear or look at it. Letting a deep breath of resignation she walked over to the purse and unclipped clasp removing the phone with her thumb and index finger almost like it was something that could potentially be toxic. Frowning she flipped it over and pressed the power button with a very un amused expression waiting to see how much damage she had done. As the l.e.d lights lit up the back ground she had to stifle a few cuss words .

"Seventeen missed call's" she said incredulously ready to throw the damn thing out the window because she didn't want to deal with whoever the hell called her just that much.

"Fuck" she muttered under her breath and she clicked the view button for the missed calls and messages . The first number was no surprise Nanao Ise had called her . . . . she arched her eyebrow three time in a hour , Her mother had called once , Momo called three times . She wrinkled her nose why in the world would Momo call her so many times in such a short amount of time . Scrolling further down looked at her phone blandly Rui had called her once but she sort of figured her would call and ask her a few questions. Yoruichi called her twice and left a text . . noise bitch but Rukia couldn't help but laugh as she thought this because she knew the woman too well and she would probably be harassing her about the flowers because if it were really important she would call Rukia on her home phone. Arching her eyebrow she had to do a double take as she read Kuisku's name flash across the screen , more than likely he had talked to Yoruichi and drunk dialed. Scrolling further down she found Miyako had called her twice in one hour then two later she had called her again . She would definitely have to call her back and apologize and see if there was something they would work out or at least go out to lunch . There was another call from Nanao at three am , man she must have really had something to tell her . and finally the last two calls almost made her want her throw her phone out the window and change her number forever. . .Abari , Renji had called .

" Oh fuck that." Chucking the phone on her bed she turned towards her closet and cringed as she heard the phone crunch on the ground.

For the life of her she couldn't figure out just why in the hell Renji called her , more than likely they were just two unpleasant rude drunk fuck me baby calls . She remember in the beginning he used to like to drunk dial her after the parties because he thought she would put out for him seeing as he "Paid her to entertain him." Shaking her head she went to her vanity and pulled out her brush , there wasn't enough money in the world that he could offer her to even make her consider sleeping him . Besides he been Matsumoto fuck buddy for years … she shivered at that thought.

Pulling her hair up into a tight, neat pony tail with a tortoiseshell clip , she could feel herself get wound up and today she was not going to do it . Taking a deep breath she nodded to herself in the mirror the world could live without hearing from her for the day . So what was she going to do with herself today , the same damn thing she should have done with herself yesterday. Gotten her lap top went down to her favorite café and had a cup of coffee and gotten her actual real world work done.

So putting on her softest pink cashmere button up sweater , she dug around in her closet to find her favorite khaki knee length skirt . She smiled as she slipped it on it had been worn so many times it become soft . It wasn't worn out , it was just very well loved. Digging around she found a pair of neat white tights she did a little happy dance because she could actually wear a skirt and be warm un like the last few nights were she had to deal with cold weather and very little cloths, and finally the icing on the cake the pot of gold at the end of her great day rainbow she pulled out a pair of light pink leather heals made of the softest real Spanish leather , they weren't high heels they were moderate maybe an inch or two but they were _so_ comfortable . Grabbing her glass's off her vanity she smiled with a little skip in her step as she set off for what was looking to be a very good day .

.

.

Byakuya sighed contently he had gotten a full night's sleep a luxury he didn't often have , but mostly that had a lot to do with the fact that he turned off his phone . He had left the party early because just the sight of Abari was making him physically ill , and Hisanna well he shrugged to himself as he walked down the street from a down town parking structure , there really wasn't much he could say for Hisanna , he had seen her in her full bitchy glory and after waking up this morning without a searing pain constricting his heart he had to wonder if this what closure felt like. Was this what it felt like to finally be over her . He had spent so many years of his life in love with a woman he never really even knew he didn't quite know if he should be happy or sad all of the pain that he felt was diminishing because for all of these years he had carried around all the blame and hurt like a badge of honor so to speak. Right now he would let it go because he felt good and that was all that mattered

He even felt better about his little bout of insanity that had caused him to go after a stripper of all things , well yeah she was still a kind of sort of stripper. He had found out from Miyako that the woman had given that life up a few years back and now focused her energy on promoting herself as adult model . He would have to google her when he got to his favorite café . He took in a deep breath he could almost smell the rich aroma of coffee that floated around in the air of the shop , hands down it had the best coffee and he had been feeling deprived of it due to the insane turn his life had taken on the last few weeks. As he walked down the street his mind whirled about all the cases her was working on and the court dates they had lined up .

He walked in the door of the small coffee shop and felt himself relax immediately. He would catch up on his own cases with people who were not absolutely off their bloody rocker. He really had no idea why an overly romantic fool like his good friend Shunsui would have ever chosen to take on family law as a hobby when all he ever spewed on about was how great love was when as a job he dedicated many , many , many hours into exploiting and tearing love apart into equitable assets then finally stabbing it to death with division of property and real estate and children . No wonder the man was forty and . . . He felt himself collide with something … _again.._ Before he could look down he could hear the sound of a cup hitting the floor and its contents splash all over the place and a small little muffled cry then an "oh no!"

He really didn't need this _again_ growling slightly he looked down into equally exasperated and angry violet eyes .

"Watch…" her voice came out angrily before she started to laugh .

In truth it was rather comical he had run over the same woman he had the day before. Let out a chuckle himself he let himself smile at the absurdity of it.

"I'm sorry."

He could help but soften his smile as she blushes prettily as she tried to adjusted her purse , and brief case so she could clumsily bend down and pick up her coffee cup san's its contents.

Being the gentleman he was raised to be he actually bent down and retrieved the empty cup for her so she would not drop everything she was carrying.

" I'm so sorry."

He watched for a moment as the blush depend and she started to nibble nervously on her bottom lip .

He watched her look him up and down carefully to see if she had done any damage to him in the process of there collision " If I stained anything I will be more than happy to pay for it to get dry cleaned or replaced."

He was silent for a long moment because all he could do was stair at this small woman for the life of him he couldn't figure out why she was being so nice to him , he had just run over her, for the second time ! If someone had run over him he would have made them regret the day they took their first breath , but she was being so sweet about it . If that weren't troublesome enough she actually looked as she sweet as she was sounding. In her light pink sweater and soft reserved clothing as well the Chappy lap top case that was peeping out of her tote bag made her appear much less like a cool business woman . Tilting his head to the side he fought the urge to shake his head for some reason she looked so much smaller , so much more delicate than the woman he had seen yesterday in the harsh business suit, and she was a far cry from goddess he was dealing with the night before. Taking all of this in he mentally frowned there was no way someone could truly look and be that nice it was either one or the other but never both . Letting out a cough he cleared his throat and his thoughts

"No , no it's my fault I should have been paying more attention." He smiled apologetically down at her . . wait a minute _he was being apologetic? _

He could see a little sigh escape her lips as a small smile started to grace it again as she turned to look back up at him as she pushed her thick glass's further up on her nose from where they had slipped down. However it was his turn to look her over quickly considering the day before he had ruined a very expensive suit that Miyako would have killed him for if it would have been her.

"I didn't get your drink all over you again did I?" it was his turn to look abashed now as he watched her look herself over and shake her head

"Nope." He could hear the obvious relief in her voice. " You just killed my cup of coffee though."

"Well then I will buy you another one seeing as it is the second time I have killed your cup of coffee." He looked down at her good naturedly .

She smiled a little self deprecatingly you really don't have to do that I am sure you are extremely busy and are just popping in and out of here ."

He shook his head. " I insist go take a seat and start on your work and I will order us some coffee, what do you drink?" He smiled internally again as the small woman blushed lightly.

" Just black coffee I'm a simple creature."

He nodded and flicked his wrist in a gesture for her to go find a place to sit while he got there coffee .

.

.

Finding a fairly spacious table she flumped herself into the chair for a long moment and just sat there in disbelief. Could she ever actually just be rid of this man ! For some strange sick reason they kept on running into each other literally running into each other. She frowned and started to unpack her brief case setting out files in neat little piles , as she removed her lap top from its case she quickly glanced over at the man who was now at the counter ordering there coffee . How in the hell was she supposed to get any work done . It was hard enough just to be in his presence and not want to go hide under a table , but then again he had always been like that . He was Byakuya Kuchiki never larger than life but somehow his presence filled up any space that he occupied . It didn't matter where he was he could be in the Vatican and with the air that he carried himself with people would think he owned the joint.

It didn't help he was he was hot too no matter how much she had tried to deny it the last few days she couldn't ignore the fact that the man was and always had been hot. That's what made this situation so damn frustrating. Growling to herself she shook her head thoroughly disgusted with herself and her thought process .

Tapping her nails on the table she diverted her attention to her phone to save her sanity from any more thought of a man she should be running as far and as fast away from as she humanly possibly could , but her phone didn't hold much more promise either because there was still the seventeen un listened to messages on her phone that she had been avoiding for the last few hours .Picking up the phone she reluctantly dialed in the pass code for her voice mail and braced herself for what was to come .

Message one Nanao ; Hey Rukia give me a call back ASAP (click)

She pursued her lips okey that was interesting.

Message two Nanao: Rukia ! Pick up your phone I know you have it on you and it's on. (click)

She wrinkled her nose what was her friend smoking?

Message three Nanao: Fine don't pick up your phone but I gave you two warning calls so don't bitch at me because I did this but (there was a long pause and some rustling and the sound of something ripping) So, you got two dozen red roses sent to you here tonight and the first dozen was from someone named Shiba , Kaien ( Rukia could her Nanao try to put a face with the name but fail) Any how he wanted to say he was sorry for his friends stupidity if indeed he did do anything stupid . (Rukia could feel tension build behind her eyes) The second dozen are from someone named Kuchiki , B ? and apparently he wanted to say he was sorry for the way the boy treated you the night before? (She could hear the questions forming in Nanao's head) So I just want to know . BEEEEEEEEEEP The voice mail cut Nanao off by the grace of god

"Is nothing sacred" she muttered to herself and she hung up from her voice mail not really wanting to hear any more

"No, I think privacy and the such have been lost due to technology" she watched as a large cup of coffee got set next to her and the man that was holding it take a seat in front of her with an amused expression.

"No kidding." She frowned and blew some steam off the top of the cup in attempts to cool it off even just a bit so she could take a sip of the potent drug she so desperately needed to get rid of the nagging head ache that was starting to form.

"That good of a morning" Amusement was evident in his voice as she watched as he set his own briefcase on the table and pull an ultra light lap top out of it and a phone very similar to hers

She watched in disbelief as he started to make himself at home in the space that was left at the table . . . Did she invite him to sit with her? With a deep sigh of resignation she gave into the inevitable and took the bait to start the conversation he was trying to start.

"It's been absolutely smashing." She chuckled darkly only to watch him arch his eyebrow as if to question her.

"My friends are reading my mail now." She chuckled dryly " And by the way thank you for the roses they are beautiful."

"You're welcome." He said cautiously as he opened his lap top case and pressed power . " But how did the roses that I sent you and your friends reading your mail correlate?"

She took a sip of the still too hot coffee and hmmed " They read the note you wrote asking to go out to lunch." The words came out easily and it took everything she had not to laugh as she watched the coffee he was sipping get caught in his throat.

"Oh?" He swallowed but kept his ever cool expression. "Sounds like great friends."

She mentally smirked this was going to be good he may not be outwardly showing it but he was squirming in his seat .

"By the way Yoruichi say's I should , and I quote her 'let him take you out to dinner my dear Bya-boo has really good taste'" It took everything she had to keep from laughing as she watched a vein start to pop out of his forehead at the mention of the name Bya-boo.

He pursed his lips looking as if he were trying to find the words. " Did Kisku having anything to add ?" his words came out dry

She couldn't help but smirk and nod "Yeah, that I should do what she told me to."

She watched his expression dead pan for a long moment. " But the roses really were beautiful." She said trying to save the conversation and Byakuya from getting angrier. She smiled softly and set her cup of coffee down on the table. " They are actually sitting on my living room coffee table the vase has a really pretty way of reflecting the light." She watched as his posture became less ridged. " The florist did a beautiful job at putting it together" she said softly now feeling a little bad about picking on him.

"I actually picked out the vase and the roses." He said coolly but visibly relaxing .

This took her back a bit , he went through all of that trouble just for her. "Well thank you even more than." Tilting her head to the side curiously she gave him a side long glance " So how long have you known our dear friend Yoruichi , and I am assuming a dear friend because Bya-boo is a pretty personal nick name."

"He has known that bitch for way to long." A sharp staccato voice snapped from right above them causing Rukia to jump a little out of her seat.

Great she thought to herself just the other person she wanted to see today if Renji came strolling in it would just complete that fantastic day she had planned for herself.

"Hisanna." As Byakuya said the woman's name she could swear she could feel the temperature physically drop a few degree's around them.

"We need to talk ." her words came out sharp and angry

"Hisanna" He repeated her name with a little more irritation but it was obviously lost on her

Rukia watched as the woman looked down at her with an arrogant expression that Rukia wanted to slap off her face.

"That mean's" her words came out dripping with condescension. "That little secretaries like you , little girl , need to get up and get the big kids a cup of coffee and make yourself scarce."

Taking a deep calming breath she stood up because if she didn't leave she was going to deck the woman.

"I want a non fat latte no foam room temperature." She looked down her nose at Rukia "Do you think you can handle that little secretary?"

"Hisanna." Byakuya growled angrily "You don't have to Ru. . . "

Rukia had , had it with this woman right up to her fucking eyeballs so she shook her head with a demure look. " Don't worry , I'll go get it." Turning she walked quietly away from what was about ready to be a huge scene if she were to have stayed there.

As she left she heard Byakuya's deep voice and Hisanna's shrill little one chattering angrily at him . In all honestly she was happy she wasn't there having to listen to what that woman had to say because if possible she was starting to look worse than her own half sister and that was pretty bad. Pausing for only a moment she looked up at the board and ordered and extra hot latte with caramel sauce and a dark grin.

As she walked back to the table she could tell Byakuya wanted to be anywhere but where he was at and he was starting to become extremely exasperated as the small bird like woman tapped the tip of her pointed Dior pumps quickly on the floor.

"Finally!" Hisanna turned around as Rukia cleared her throat letting her presence be known. " Here is hoping you're not as inept as you look." Turning flippantly to Byakuya she sighed " I don't know how you find these little girls."

Rukia was born with good manners but somewhere between now and then she forgot them "I'm sorry ma'" and as she finished the word she "accidently" tripped with the lid that she had already loosened on the coffee cup and dumped it all over the woman's white pashmina coat. "oop's" she glair as she rectified herself dumping the rest of the coffee that hadn't spilled out of the cup already onto the woman . " I tripped" She said darkly as she dropped the cup at to woman's feet.

**Nothing says pay back like sticky hot coffee on an uber expensive white coat : ) Any who hope you all enjoyed the chap and as ever please Read and Review **


	8. Chapter 8

Won't listen to any advice,  
Mamma's telling me to think twice  
But left to my own devices  
I'm addicted it's a crisis!

My friends think I've gone crazy,  
My judgment is getting kinda hazy  
My status is gonna be affected  
If I keep it up like a love sick crackhead

I don't care what people say  
The rush is worth the price I pay  
I get so high when you're with me  
But crash and crave you when you are away

–Ke$ha

"You will pay for this!" The sharp featured woman hissed, clearly even more enraged than before.

Her words ticked Rukia off, as Rukia started to tremble in rage. She had enough of people like Hisana, Renji, Mastsumoto, her father, and just about everyone that had treated her like a piece of trash. Digging in her Coach's limited purple leathered briefcase, Rukia pulled out one of her personal monogrammed card and sharply flicked it at Hisana along with a hundred dollar bill.

Harshly biting on her lip for a long moment, pondering at the soon-to-be-coming actions, Rukia glared as she opened her mouth and declared war.

"Charge me."

Letting those two words out, Rukia felt good to stand up for herself for a change. However, seeing Hisana's eyes widened in shock as she read _Shihōin Industries_ embossed in her sleek purple business card, was what made Rukia laugh dryly as she displayed a brutally cold expression.

"Go figure you'd be a lacky for _that woman_. Oh, and by the way, you'll be hearing from the lawyers."

Rukia let out another sardonic chuckle as Hisana's voice became shrill and her face became visibly red with anger. Then, Rukia's eyes narrowed and her mouth twisted to a smirk.

"I will bury you and you know it." Rukia said nastily, perhaps for the first time ever as Rukia Yamamoto. She took a step towards Hisana, making her involuntarily take a step back, until Rukia and Hisana were eye to eye, nose to nose.

"I dare you, mess with me."

Though it was barely audible, the venomous despise laced in those words were fully delivered to the older woman as Rukia twirled her back, tightly clenching her fists she struggled to keep from trembling due to her little outburst, and walked towards to her possessions. While having her back toward Hisana, Rukia fought back the urge to turn around and say more, only to be momentarily frozen in realization: she could leave. Rukia could truly care less what that woman had to say anymore, because unlike the past where she had had to stay and let someone beat up on her, she was no longer on the bottom of the food chain. Really, it was so very simple. Rather than having waste time and effort of having to deal with the bull shit, she could go do her work at Shihōin library, stationed in the massive Shihōin central building, where Rukia could at least find relative peace all be it without the coffee she wanted so desperately. Nevertheless, it would be more tranquil than where she was currently at.

Seeing Rukia grabbing for her papers laid out on the table, obviously ignoring Hisana, Hisana once again opened her mouth,

"Do you…"

only to be cut off mid-sentence by Byakuya's deep, cold, angry voice.

"Leave Hisana."

'_Kuchiki Byakuya?'_ thought Rukia, who became very still at Byakuya irritated voice, she now knew why people could be so easily intimidated by him. Like a sword slicing the air in half, his voice came out in a sharp icy tone holding a silent lethal warning behind it. These tones, picked up by ever attentive Rukia, was enough to make her slightly cringe and create a desire to suddenly shrink, to make herself as small as possible so this man's ire would not be directed at her as well for her inappropriate behavior.

"Go."

Hisana's violent eyes hardened as she snapped, unfazed by Byakuya's demeanor, but before she could open her mouth to finish her sentence, Byakuya's steely voice, yet again interrupted with irritation laced to the resentment.

Rukia wanted to close her eyes tightly and pray with all her might that this confrontation end quickly because she didn't want to be in the middle of the outburst that these two out spoken people will create

"You are starting to annoy me."

Byakuya said, with his piercing grey eyes glaring daggers toward his once beloved.

"I said leave Hisana. That means turning around without another word and civilly walking out of that door." Hearing the words, chills went down Rukia's spine as she could practically feel anger radiating from the man beside her.

"Not to mention that I, for one, have had enough of you disrespecting Miss Yamamoto with your foolish child like behavior."

Her amethyst eyes widened. Was Byakuya standing up for her? She had never had anyone stand up for her no matter how cruel or rude they acted to her with the exception of Yoruichi, who scared the living soul out of any who dared have the audacity to be rude to any of her close employees. Nevertheless, in the real world no one did this for her.

"I can't believe it," Hisana's voice came out in pure shock and disdain, "you actually want me to leave and this little mouse to stay when she is just as much at fault as I am?" now her words sounded even more like a petulant child.

Rukia cringed at the mention of 'little mouse.' It was an insult Matsumoto often used to direct at her when they lived under the same roof. The busty woman would say it fit Rukia perfectly because she was small, quiet, and really not all that pretty when she was just being herself.

"_Go scurry away to your little corner, little mouse."_

Rukia could hear Matusmoto's voice underlying Hisana's words bringing her out of the reverie as Rukia started to pack her brief case faster. After all, the world wasn't a perfect place to inhabit; it was a platform of a violent competition to be the survival of the fittest. Not to mention that Rukia could tell the ending of this dispute was not going to be one of those pretty "happily ever afters."

"Believe it Hisana and leave. I don't feel like dealing with you anymore." His words held such final dismissal that if you squinted hard enough could see him flick his wrist as to wave an undesirable object away.

Unconsciously, Rukia found herself holding her breath, not even daring to look back at the said couple. So resigning to what she would call this fate(by then she was almost positive fate hated her), Rukia just waited until she heard a loud huff and equally angry staccato clicks of stiletto heels walking away. After hearing the café's little bells clink shut, Rukia let a deep breath out and fell into her chair for support, not even bothering to return a certain man's gaze.

For a long moment, the silence at the table was deafening, clouding the five senses, and Rukia couldn't help but feel absolutely horrible for her abominable manners, blatant display of anger, and disrespect. Once again, biting her lip softly she looked up at Byakuya very slowly.

"I'm sorry," she spook delicately, " my behavior was deplorable. I had no right to put you in that type of situation with your ex-wife."

Speaking those words, Rukia really did feel worse, because no matter how badly Hisana's behavior was, it did not give her the right to do what she did. Softly frowning, she shook her head in regret,

"Again all I can say is how truly sorry I am. I know it doesn't mean much, now after what has already occurred."

Rukia turned back to her paper work, stacking it neatly and then putting it into her custom made sterling silver monogrammed violet briefcase. Feeling the smooth surface of the leather, Rukia let out a small soft smile: the briefcase was one of the first present given from Yoruichi, who fervently urged Rukia to be more fashionable. Snapping it shut, Rukia allowed her delicate fingers to linger a little longer on the clasps before she started to stand.

With a deep breath, Byakuya sighed, grabbing Rukia's attention to his toned sitting figure.

"Don't be sorry." he said in a soothing voice, honestly causing Rukia to look over at him with confusion.

"In reality, that woman had had it coming to her for a long time," he let his own eyes travel on her petite, yet curvaceous body before his eyes met hers, "and if I'm correct, you've probably wanted to stand up for yourself like that for a long time."

His simple soft smile took Rukia back a few steps, because that was the last thing in the world she expected to see cross his lips. She watched him snort softly as he took a sip of his coffee.

"You know, I actually do have it in me to be nice."

'_Just not in public...'_ she thought to herself as she looked up at him, still at a loss for words.

He looked at her kindly. It seemed like all the hot air had been blown out of her and all she could do to prevent from falling was lean on her chair for support.

For what felt like an eternity, she closed her eyes tightly and hoped upon hope that when she opened it, _hopefully_ she might be back home, in bed, instead of sitting in her favorite coffee shop, trying to untie the knots in her stomach that had been forming, and trying to think of ways to get rid of the most gorgeous man alive that happened to be sitting in front of her and conducting himself in a debonair manner. She wanted to beat her head into a wall; her mother warned her that something like this would happen. She was just banking on it happening with someone exponentially less intelligent than Kuchiki Byakuya so she might be able to wiggle out of it unscathed.

With another deep breath she opened her eyes slowly only to find his soothing kind grey ones looking down into her.

"Hi." she said weakly with a different kind of apologetic smile now.

His expression never wavering, he himself smiled in return.

"It's alright, Hisana can be a lot to deal with."

As she spoke she saw a minuscule sad storm clouds pass across his eyes.

"She is enough to even wear a mountain down."

"She looked nicer in the society pages when I was younger." Rukia laughed and sat up a little straighter in her chair, again attempting to be a little more confident only to catch Byakuya suddenly giving her a very odd look. Suddenly, it hit her that Byakuya would think of her as a stalker which was by far from the truth. Well up until a few days ago it was true, and even then she only Googled him once in the world wide web Rukia thought to herself.

Letting out a weary sigh, Rukia shook her head,

"No," the words came out quietly, trying to rectify the mistake she just made, "when we were all younger, during our teens, I remember seeing Hisana and her friends in the society pages… along with you." her eyes reached a full smile as she said playfully, "You know living life of the rich and famous."

She watched as the man in front of her look slightly abashed and she shrugged.

"Like I said, when we were younger her and her friends looked like they would be pleasant to meet."

A look of relief washed over the mans face, her words seemed to have convey him with assurance that he and she both know it was only but a past.

"We were all different when we were younger." His words came out in sad quiet defense of a woman who may have never really been nice in the first place.

"I can't deny that..." She looked over her briefcase and surrounding. In truth, never in her wildest dreams did she ever think she would be able to call this upscale coffee shop her favorite place to get coffee. "It's amazing how far we have come." Her words came out in a mumble, as to speak to herself in a soft sort of awe. Then she averted her gaze, looking behind the large glass window where people rushed to get to their destination from the bustling street of the posh little shopping district.

He cleared his throat seemingly pulling her out of her little trance. In a swift motion she looked up at him with another comforting smile. She hoped to heaven that her face was not starting to turn red.

"We have all come along way."

He looked her over, his eyes once again wandering on her lithe form causing Rukia to feel a tingle here and there with a giddy feeling which started to build up in her stomach. It felt like she had been waiting life times; an eternity of longing, just for a conversation as simple as this with someone she actually wanted to spend time with. And that was when panic hit her.

She chided herself for such a foolish thought to cross her mind. She did not want to spend time with him. She wanted to stay away from him. Yes, of course. But being well trained as she was, Rukia kept a smile on her face keeping herself so carefully hidden. _'Why? Why did she want to keep herself away from him?'_ the question lingered until she heard his velvet voice.

"So tell me about yourself again." He chuckled nervously. She almost felt sorry for him because in all reality, he really didn't know much about her. _'Right, because he and I are worlds apart…'_ remembered Rukia, knowing full well her own secrets were deemed treacherous and shameful to common society.

"Well," she sat up in her chair and looked at all of her stuff, "I have no life."

It was her turn to laugh self deprecatingly.

He smirked and looked at the table brimming over with paper works that were yet to be put inside along with the previous stacks. "So what else are you doing with your lack of a life?" he asked.

'_Was he flirting with her?'_ She paused, her heart nearly stopped as the little girl in her merrily jumped up and down with joy. He, _Kuchiki Byakuya_, was flirting with her! Then reality bitch slapped the little girl. She knew this was not…, no, it could not happen. _'I must be dreaming.'_

"I…" before she could get anything out, her cell phone blared out the chorus from Glamorous by Ferggi causing both them as well as the people around them to jump a little at the sudden interruption.

_The glamorous,  
The glamorous, glamorous (the glamorous life)  
For the glamorous, oh the flossy flossy_

Without even looking down she knew who it was. Closing her eyes tightly, Rukia knew she didn't want to know why Yoruichi was calling her on her work phone on a Sunday morning and decided to ignore, only to be responded by a _bing_ indicating a text has been received.

Temporarily forgetting that Byakuya was beside her, Rukia flipped her glistening phone over to see who sent the text. Instead of normal title, a SOS(if it were really, _really_ _important_), ASAP or 911 to tell the magnitude of the text, there in big bold letters was **PICK ME UP BITCH OR ELSE** . . . Sometimes, Rukia really had to wonder about Yoruichi's sense of wording. Clicking on the message to read, Rukia's eyes almost bugged out of her head.

**Your father is starting to buy up the pieces of Ichimaru Industries that we disbanded! I need you in the office NOW!**

"Son of a bitch!" she yelled throwing her phone down in anger. "I'll bring that bitch so far down not even _daddy_ will be able to pick her up this time!" Her mind started to race as she angrily started to shove things into her briefcase.

The man across the table cleared his throat with obvious amusement, once again causing Rukia jerk her head up. Seeing his figure on the chair, Rukia's head turned into a color that could put a tomato to shame. She had not been using her inside voice, as she liked to call it, and with the look on his face as he stared down at her, the amethyst eyed woman knew he and everyone around her had heard every profanity that had just come out of her mouth.

"Oh my god…" Her heart started to feel like it was pounding out of her chest, " I'm… you… them!" she looked around helplessly. She could physically feel her cheeks getting hot from the embarrassment of her outburst. _'Only if she had the power to go back in time, or even erase memories.'_ To add insult to injury, Byakuya started to laugh at her. His facial expression converting into a clear amusement.

"Such words to come out of such pretty mouth…" He chuckled melodically as he gave her a bone melting smile. For some odd reasons, the petite woman now wanted to throw her phone at him. Was he making fun of her? Her distress must have shown because his expression quickly sobered.

"What happened? Maybe I can help you." He said seriously, only causing her heart rate to increase faster. She didn't want him in her life: she wanted him out and this was giving him a legitimate way to wiggle his way in and. . and . . and she was starting to hyperventilate.

"Rukia," concern was clear in his voice as he reached over and squeezed her shaking hand reassuringly, "what happened?"

She gave up. This was a battle she was going to lose anyway. Trying to keep him in the dark about this fragment of her life was coming out to be almost impossible now: someone up there must have really hated her.

Looking up to him, she took few shaky deep-breaths hoping to center herself so she could try explaining the situation at hand without part of her freaking out while doing so.

Pursing her lips together and carefully organizing her thoughts, Rukia calmed down a bit without realizing that her fingers where now intertwined with Byakuya's.

"In the last year, Yoruichi and I have been trying to take down the Ichimaru Industries." Her words came out as evenly as she could as she felt the anger start to build up again. Byakuya squeezed her hand, trying to soothe her obvious anger by letting her know that he was here, beside her.

Without thinking, she took another deep breath, "Last week, we completely bought out Ichimaru Industries."

Byakuya's eyes widened.

"Long story short, it's my job to deal with research, marketing, and the demographics. I found out what made Gin's company tick. Yoruichi bought out the share holders stock, dominated the board, and sunk the company by forcing Gin out."

She watched Byakuya's eyebrow raise.

"We disbanded it splitting it up into a whole bunch of little companies, and now her . . . " she took another deep breath and shivered, "_our_ _father_" the words came out in detest, a miserable tang its after taste, "is trying to buy up the little companies." This time it was Rukia who unconsciously clutched Byakuya's hand in quiet rage. "And I will not let that _happen_."

She felt his warm hand engulfing her trembling ones. " I can help you, you know." The concern In his eyes radiated such warmth that it almost made her want to cry. She was caught between bewilderment: on one hand she wanted and needed his help while on the other she really needed him out of her life for good.

"Thank you," she was going to try to get out of this in the most diplomatic way she knew how, "right now I could really use a ride to the Shihōin Industries…" after considerably thinking she gave a weak grin adding, "…that is if you brought your car."

He nodded solemnly, "I did and I most certainly can."

Then, she smiled the brightest smile she could muster and said, "Thank you."

Standing they both packed up their things. Quickly grabbing her purple briefcase like the gentleman he is, he ushered her to the door and even opened it for her while she was engrossed in trying to text Yoruichi and Kuiske, all the while wildly sending out short e-mails on her Blackberry .

Following him to the parking structure few blocks down, the raven haired woman didn't even pay attention to the car she was getting in. For all she knew, it could have been a beat up car from the sixties, as long as it got her there she wouldn't have cared. She didn't even realize that Byakuya had not spoken a word through her frantic flurry of messages or the fact that he had turned on the heated seats for her because he had noticed she had been shivering as they walked down the street.

In her mind all she could think was that she would not let this happen and that she had worked far too hard over the last year. She had put up with that bitch of a sister her entire life and if it took every last thing she had, she would make sure that bitch went down now that she had the power to do so.

Through her turmoil of work she noticed the car had stopped. Pausing for just the briefest moments Rukia saw that she was at the door way of Shihōin Industries. Letting out an audible sigh of relief, the purple eyed woman didn't even conceive that Byakuya had somehow procured her Brief case again . It was odd. The man seemed to be picking up all of her frazzled lose ends in considerable amount of ease. Without thinking, Rukia leaned over and kissed him on the cheek.

"Thank you so much." She smiled in respite, grabbed her case, and shot out of his car all the while fumbling in her purse for the office keys. In fact, the petite woman almost tripped in the process of finding them, but find them she did right before she hit the door.

**XooooXooooXooooXooooXoooX**

Looking down from one of the top floor windows, Yoruichi crossed her arms over her ample chest and slightly narrowed her eyes as she saw Byakuya's flashy car pull up in front of her building. Studying the car for a long moment, her lips curled up into a cat-like smile as she watched Rukia stumble out of the passenger side door, cell phone stuck between her ear and her shoulder and her PDA in one hand while the only open hand was busy digging around in her purse for the office keys.

What was even more interesting was that Byakuya was waiting to make sure that her little Rukia got into the building safely.

Her devious smile grew.

"Most interesting." She muttered to herself as she watched Rukia enter the building and her other "socially inept" friend drove off.

Turning away from the window, the tanned woman made her way to the office door.

"Kisuke." She said with a grin as she picked her day planner off the desk.

"Yes my love?" The blonde haired man walked up behind the said woman and wrapped his arms around her midsection, resting his head lightly on top of her exposed shoulders while idly watching her flip through her book.

"Kisuke, I think we need a new lawyer."

The man shifted his head as he watched where her finger fell in her book.

"if you wish my love, but remember to be _nice_."

Snapping the book shut Yoruichi smiled brightly and turned around to bury her head in his shoulder for a minute, efficiently hiding her ever growing smile.

"Don't worry I'll be an _angel_."

**XooooXooooXoooXoooX**

Byakuya watched the small woman stumble clumsily out of his car as she frantically continued to press more buttons on her hand held PDA. She staggered again and hit the thick, front glass door, making the once stoic man fight the urge to not chuckle at her pain. This Rukia was turning out to be a one in a million.

Just to make sure she was safe, he continued to watch her until she made her way into the building. It was still during broad daylight so it didn't mean much, but he wanted to make sure some trash didn't attack her. Nonetheless, he was more worried about having to save her from herself if she actually did trip and fall.

After watching Rukia fumble with the door and successfully locked it, he lost sight of her moving into the depths of the building and once again taking one last lingering look at his passenger's seat with a soft smile, he started up the car.

She looked so small as she sat next to him, but hearing her tone as she spoke to different people on the phone, he could tell where people could be quite intimidated by this tiny woman. He smirked, she was a mini mogul. As he glanced at the seat something glittery caught his eyes. Reaching over, he picked up a small rhinestone and curiously gazed at it. He didn't remember ever having anyone in his car that could marred the leathered seats with such a thing. Rukia wasn't wearing anything that had rhinestones on it.

Shifting the car into gear he growled to himself. He was going to have to call the valet service at the Four Seasons and tell them to keep better track of their employees and to fire the empty-headed kid who so obviously took his car out for a joy ride. As he was about to press the send button on his phone, common sense slowed his angry roll. He had just had a woman sitting next to him that had a rhinestone cell phone cover. She also had an interlocking rhinestone that shaped 'C's on the side of her sunglasses. Throwing his phone back into the console, its normal resting place, he glanced over to the seat again and saw several more on the back rest of the seat. He used his index finger to brush the jewels off his seat but couldn't because they were stuck. Using his nail he plucked them off the seat and shook his head as the few white and pink crystals fell onto the actual seat. He chuckled to himself; he would have to buy her a nice phone cover because, even though hers was cute," it was obviously cheap and she would need a new one soon.

It had been a while since he had bought things for a woman other than Miyako or his aunt. Sure he had had sent occasional bunch of flowers to one of the woman he worked with when she had a baby or got a promotion, but this time the reason was different. He let his mind wander as he found himself driving to the shopping district trying to figure out what the reason was so different. Well, it was obvious she needed a new cell phone case: she needed a nicer one. That was a good gift that wasn't too personal. It was a nice gesture and it certainly wasn't too condescending. As he parallel parked, Byakuya looked down at his phone. He really wanted to call Miyako to get her opinion, since she was woman and would know the right thing to suggest, but she would make fun of him and tell Kaien. Then he would never hear the end of it and that was that.

He let out a sigh as he looked at the building in front of him. Cartier would have to do for now on such short notice and he remembered Kaien had once gotten Miyako some beautiful pieces from this store. He walked into the store and they were more than accommodating to his request which was always nice because he hated it when people asked him tons of questions. He was a _simple_ man, straight to the point, and he wanted what he wanted.

Thirty minutes later, the grey eyed man walked out of the store with a new pair of cufflinks, a tie tack, and a new gift for Rukia that has been custom made. He couldn't wait to see her reaction when she receives the gifts. Just the thought of it made him smile. Everything about her was simply elegant. However, much like himself, who very rarely bought anything frivolous for himself, she seemed to be the same way; not to mention that the world they were living in, where the men were large than life and the woman were so put together, it was deemed gauche for a woman to spend money on such expensive things: that is unless your appearance commanded attention or if you were looked over. His dear little Rukia should never be looked over.

It was a beautiful day, he could see the clear azure texture of the sky, adorned with plump white clouds, as the bright sun poured light and warmth to those on Earth. Deciding not to waste such a day on work, the Kuchiki heir continued to stroll along the streets of the attractive shopping district that border lined one of the cities many famous business districts. Looking up he saw the top of his grandfather's main office, the Kuchiki Enterprise. The skyscraper was towering over the buildings and was dominating the skyline, which got the grey eyed man to thinking of old men, well one specific old man in particular: Yamamoto Shigekuni.

It was such an odd train of thought, but then again everything about the day had been rather odd. For the life of him, Byakuya couldn't figure out why the man wanted to try to buying up the scattered pieces of Ichimaru Industries. Well, he did in a way. The old man would do anything for his legitimate daughter. One which included a successful divorce with his daughter's man, who had proven to be so inept. But the again, what did he expect from the old man? After all, he was a bastard himself. As the saying goes, "birds of a feather flock together."

He continued to look up at his grandfather's building, thinking about his own grandfather. He was always up for a little fun at his age. He always complained that life was getting a little boring and that he wanted Byakuya to become more interested in commerce so he could take over when the old man decided to kick the bucket.

Picking up his phone he dialed his business partner's number with a hint of a sadistic grin.

"Kaien how would you feel about going into a little business venture with me? I just got a wonderful insider tip on some valuable properties that have just come up for sale."

**XooooXOoooXooooXX**

Kaien paused for a long while. "What has gone up for sale that has sparked your interest? " he asked suspiciously as he could hear his long time friend walking down the street.

"Ichimaru's industry has just been torn apart and has been scattered into a bunch of different companies." his friend said, his tone clearly indicating that the said information should have explained it all.

"Hmm…" Kaien tapped his fingers on his office desk at home. "I know you don't personally like the man Byakuya, but why would you want to buy up the scattered remnants of the company because you know it was Yoruichi who personally splattered that company off the map?"

"Old man Yamamoto has started to buy up some of the pieces that have been splattered and I just thought…."

Kaien's fingers stopped drumming on the desk.

"Byakuya no. I know you don't like Yamamoto and all but when did you start to actually want to fuck with this man head on?" He could almost see his friend shrug his shoulders carelessly like he so often did when he got into these moods, which Kaien hadn't seen in years. The navy haired man was truly starting to worry for his friend's sanity. _'Maybe he needs a vacation to regroup himself.'_

"Since I ran into Rukia Yamamoto today and watched her face drop when she found out her bastard of a father was starting to regroup a company she had personally worked to disband."

Kaien paused for a long moment trying to piece things together.

"You mean that poor girl that your ran over a few days back was Rukia Yamamoto?"

"You knew this." His friends voice came out matter-of-factly.

Kaien did know this and was informed of what the old bastard and his daughter had done to the poor girl.

"Fine I'm in. I'll start making phone calls now since it sounds like you are out and about."

Byakuya smiled darkly. He always wanted to go up against the old man one on one.

Coming back to his car he clicked it unlock and felt his phone vibrate. Picking it up, he had to do a double take on the name that came up….

.

.

.

**Shihōin.**


	9. Chapter 9

So first to start off by saying thank you , thank you , thank you guys for all the lovely reviews , author alerts , story alerts and adding to favorites over the last six months . Regrettably my muse went into hiding when I started school in the spring ( I think is from fear of all of this book learning stuff that was dumped on her) But I digress between work and school I barely had enough energy to see straight . However since it is summer and I only have work I will start to write again because the muse has returned

Xoxoxox - blackbubbledancer


	10. Chapter 10

**So I re read over this and realized holy crap my editing the first time was so far beyond deplorable it wasn't even funny . So I re edited to make it at least somewhat understandable this time . It's not perfect but it's a hell of a lot better **

**XOXOXXX**

**-Blackbubbledancer**

Love is great, love is fine (Oh oh oh oh oh)  
Out the box, outta line (Oh oh oh oh oh)  
The affliction of the feeling leaves me wanting more (Oh oh oh oh oh)

Cause I may be bad, but I'm perfectly good at it  
Sex in the air, I don't care, I love the smell of it  
Sticks and stones may break my bones  
But chains and whips excite me – (Rihanna S&M)

Rukia leaned back In her office chair and yawned as she pressed the power button to her lap top waiting for it to power up to life . Letting out a deep sigh she looked down at her steaming cup of coffee and groaned she didn't think she would ever want another cup of coffee again for a good long time that and those damn energy drinks . She squinted as the early morning light poured into her office with an obscene glair that she wished she could avoid. Look around the room there were piles of paper strewn about with hints of silver cans of the potent energy drink that she had pretty much been living on since Yoruichi called her in that Sunday morning.

Stifling back another yawn she turned and look out the office door to the rest of the house and shivered . In her crazy attempts to keep Ichimaru Industries disband she had let her personal life go down the toilette . Her once immaculate house was now in ruins with coffee cups littered here there and every where pieces of clothing littered the living room floor from the late night she would get home and pass out on the couch before she could even make it to her room. There was an empty pizza box sitting on top of her printer at the moment . . . well at least she hoped it was empty . She didn't even want to look in her room to see what that looked like .

"Uuugh" she lulled her head back into the soft leather chair tapping her once perfectly manicured nails on the dark leather upholstery as she waited for the computer to slowly load up.

"Ahhhhn , this is taking too long ."

She thought out loud to herself as her Chappy back ground popped up , but then again everything seemed to be moving slow compared to life around her . Shortly after they found out that Yamamoto had started to buy up little pieces of the disbanded company another private investor had started to buy up the properties just as fast if not faster and try as hard as she could it didn't seem like her firm would get much of the company back under its control and it was driving Rukia out of her mind because she knew her father , her father she could take on without a problem but how do you get information on a company whose name you don't even know ? She had worked for three solid days just trying to find the names of the people who were buying up the massive amounts of the old company because how in the hell did you crush someone you didn't even know existed .

Picking up the happy violet Chappy mug that held the repulsive substance she had coveted so dearly not six days ago she took a large sip and grimaced as the scalding liquid trickled down her throat . Taking another tired deep breath she looked down at the happy bunny cup she was holding and huffed petulantly.

"Why are you so damn happy." She spoke to the brightly smiling cartoon face . Setting the mug down next to her on her desk she ran her hands through her semi tangled hair . She was talking to an inanimate object , didn't they say that this was the first step to losing your mind?

"Oh trust me darling you lost that about three days ago ."

Nanao walked into the office behind Rukia with a somewhat amused smile on her face .

"Did I say that last part out loud or are you forming some sort of weird ESP thing ." She spun around in her swivel chair to look at her ever indulgent best friend.

" No my dear I am afraid you were using your inside voice on the outside again."

The beautiful blue eyed woman swept into the messy office dodging piles of paper work and pieces of trash along the way until she reached one of the windows opening the blinds just a little bit more to let more light with an evil smirk.

As the room brightened instantly Rukia shrank back in her chair and hissed as the influx in light assaulted her eyes.

"My god did you have to do that!"

The other woman laughed deviously " I just wanted to see if you would melt into a puddle or not at the sight of actual sun light"

Glaring over her lap top Rukia squinted into the direct sun rays at her best friend. " I'm not the wicked witch of the west I am not going to melt and besides it was water that did that to the woman not the sun light." She grumped before she swiveled her chair away from the offending light and her best friend .

Nanao closed the blind again and walked over to Rukia's work space perching herself delicately on the dark cherry oak desk. " Could have fooled me." She smiled as she picked up Rukia's abandoned coffee cup taking a sip of the liquid before making a bitter face . " My god how strong do you need this stuff."

It was Rukia's turn to smile darkly now "Getting a weak stomach now?"

"No " The words came out petulantly as Nanao set the cup down and picked up a glass Chappy paper weight that was holding god knew what down. "I'm just still sane enough to know how not to rote my stomach out ."

Setting the paper weight down Nanao looked down to Rukia suspiciously. " Aren't you supposed to have the day off ? Wasn't it your boss's orders to close the blinds go to bed and not come up until she called you ?"

Rukia snorted as she started to type away on her computer " That would have been a great idea if I didn't have my web site to keep up and appearances to manage ." She picked her reading glass's up off the table and squinted down at the computer screen for a long moment before the whirling sound of the printer came to life and files began down loading to be sent off to its destination across the office .

"You really do work too hard sometimes my dear" Nanao shifted all of her weight up onto the corner of Rukia's desk and picked up her coffee cup again taking another long sip only this time not grimacing at the bitter taste. Taking another smaller sip Nanao turned to Rukia " You know this stuff isn't half bad it was just the initial kick that got me."

Rukia snorted and continued to type away letting her fingers fly across the key board as fast as they could " Told you so " she said distractedly as she pulled up another data base .

Suddenly Rukia paused and just stared at the scream for a long moment blinking her eyes in shock she leaned closer to the lap top to get a better look at the screen before she started to bust up laughing.

"You have got to be kidding me." She was laughing so hard she accidently let out a snort .

"What?" Nanao cautiously looked down her friend that looked to be slowly cracking up.

"Big Red Balls" Was all Rukia could get out between fits of laughter.

"Excuse me?" the other woman looked down at her like she was truly out of her mind now.

" Big Red Balls" She repeated still staring at the computer in disbelief as she started to get her laughter under control.

"You're making no sense my dear." Nanao said shaking her head.

Rukia just laughed again " You know how I told you I saw Abari Renji last week at that party."

Nanao nodded slowly

"Well he has made an account on my web site."

Nanao snorted with laughter.

"And get this his user name is Big Red Ball's " Rukia let go another peel of laughter this time having to wipe the tears from her eyes.

" You have got to be kidding me." It was Nanao's turn to snort in amusement.

" I kid you not."

Rukia reached up taking the cup of coffee away from Nanao for a moment to take a sip before giving it back to her

XooooXooooXoooX

Looking at the computer for a long moment Nanao's perfectly groomed eyebrow arched letting her curiosity got the better of her she walked behind Rukia's chair and stared down at the brightly light screen and sure enough in big red letters no less was the user name Big Red Balls –Abari Renji ; twenty three years old , entrepreneur. Nanao mumbled out some of his information in disbelief that the boy would actually pay for Rukia's site considering their history . Curling her lip she felt a hole body shiver run up her spine at the thought of what the boy would do while looking at the site.

"Well at least you know he doesn't live anywhere near you" she looked back at the screen with her lip still curled in disgust.

" Ugh." It was Rukia's turn to shiver at the thought of the man "Thank every god , all the saints and the great and might Akbar he doesn't."

Nanao snorted in amusement at her little friends distress "The Great Mighty Akbar?" she let out a snort of laughter as she pondered over the name "Where did you get that one from?"

Rukia shrugged heavily and rolled her eyes " I don't know it sounded good at the time."

She watched Rukia carefully as she moved her cursor over getting ready to press the delete button for the hideous man's account.

"You might not want to do it he is a paying customer after all." The words came out practical almost to practical for Nanao's own taste.

"So." Rukia said petulantly , her finger poised over the mouse button seconds away from deleting it.

Taking a deep breath and her life into her own hands Nanao picked up her friends delicate little hand and removed it from her computers mouse pad. "You know love" she absent mindedly petted Rukia's hand as the small woman glared daggers at him. " Big Red Balls is a pretty terrible screen name and would be great for black mail."

Narrowing her eyes a bit Rukia tapped the her once perfectly manicured nails of her free hand on the desk next to her looking to lose herself in thought for a moment "It is pretty bad and if made public could hurt his reputation."

Nanao nodded her head "and its fifty bucks a month"

She shrugged her shoulders still holding her friends hand tightly "All money spends the same ."

" I hate it when your practical." Rukia flopped back into her chair looking somewhat defeated and irritated

It took everything she had to keep from laughing at her dear friend. Pulling the leather chair away from the computer Nanao reached over and closed the case putting the machine into hibernation without losing any of its data.

"See you know you're tired when I start to make sense."

Rukia just shrugged lifelessly.

"Come on."

Nanao reached down and grabbed Rukia's other hand dragging her up from her computer desk "It's time to get you into bed before your little head explodes . She watched as her little friend gave her a dry look.

"But there is so much I need to do " Rukia whined " I mean I need to clean up the trash , straighten up the living room , call Miyako back to set up something as well as talking to some venues that want me in the coming months ."

Nanao rolled her eyes as her friend continued to sleepily list out the never ending list of things that she could be doing. Shaking her head she clamped her hand around her friends little wrist and start to drag her through the mess that was her office .

"I'll clean up a little for you."

Looking around the little room she was sure she just put her foot in her mouth by offering _that_ service to her little friend.

"But don't expect perfection and I'm not touching your cloths."

Frowning she looked at a pile of jeans set next to the coffee table . " You're on your own with that one love."

"Whatever." Rukia said with heavy sleepy eyes.

Without much resistance she dragged her quickly fading friend through her work cluttered living room and finally to her bed room . Opening the door Nanao pushed Rukia into the room and quickly closed the door half tempted to put something large in front of it so it would keep her little friend in there so she would be forced to sleep , but even then Nanao knew Rukia would find a way to work so she closed the double doors and hoped for the best.

"Now get some sleep babe" She whispered to the closed door .leaning against it for a moment Nanao smiled softly as soon as she heard the rustling in the room stop.

Turning her back to the door Nanao looked out over the cluttered apartment and sighed softly at sight of the energy drink can's scattered all over the place and empty coffee cups that littered the counter around the coffee pot . Her little friend really had been working too hard to have allow coffee cups to be anywhere other than the cupboard .

XoooXoooXoooXoooX

Byakuya had a queer feeling when he saw Yoruichi's phone number pop up on his phone three days before . Usually he just ignored her call and let it go to voice mail and pick it up later to decide if he wanted to accept whatever she was offering. It was usually a fifty –fifty gamble when she was on the other end of the line. She was never morally ambiguous when it came to her business practices so he never had a problem helping her out when she needed it . It was her personal life that he often found to be less than desirable, but what could one expect from a "Stick in the mud" as she liked to call him . So whatever impulse made him pick up the phone that day he would never know.

Much to his relief in the beginning she had wanted to talk business then things took an odd turn to the confusing , suspicious ,and slightly immoral. Now all he could do was look up at the large building and shake his head because he had never been afraid of one singular person and now he was doubting if he made the right decision by accepting her request because he was now standing in the lobby of one Rukia Yamamoto's telling the doorman he was a lawyer for Shinhoin industries and had paperwork for Rukia and to kindly buzz him up to her loft.


	11. Chapter 11

**So, hello again . I know it has been like oh say … forever . I apologize for extended sabbatical but life got hectic , but I have not forgotten about this story. I would also like to thank everyone who has reviewed and prodded me over the last few months it is a major reason as to why I continue this story . Here is hoping this chapter doesn't disappoint it has been a while and I am pretty sure I got a little rusty so please be kind about any spelling and or grammatical errors. **

**Xoxox - bubbledancer **

Every night I rush to my bed  
With hopes that maybe I'll get a chance to see you when I close my eyes  
I'm going outta my head  
Lost in a fairytale  
Can you hold my hands and be my guide?  
Clouds filled with stars cover your skies  
And I hope it rains  
You're the perfect lullaby  
What kind of dream is this?

You can be a sweet dream or a beautiful nightmare  
Either way I, don't wanna wake up from you 

Byakuya took a deep breath and let it out slowly trying to relive the tense pressure that was starting to build in his chest that was causing his shoulders to start to knot. He knew he would feel something standing in the lobby of Rukia's town house but, blazing anger closing into abject hatred was not it.

It had all started well and good enough . He walked into the lobby with his briefcase, business suit which he had in incidentally a added silk tie and platinum cuff links to . He looked sharp, clean ,and EXPENCIVE! He was trying to go for important but ,well, he may have gone a tad bit overboard but ! That had not been his main goal. His main goal was just to look presentable enough to see the small beautiful woman that he had in his car not three days ago.

If he had not been so irritated he would have let himself smile at the thought of his small beauty that was seventeen floors up from where he was standing at this very moment.

So being who he was he expected to walk into her building and sail up to her condo no questions asked . . boy was he wrong instead of sailing through the lobby he promptly got blocked by the door man from hell . The man would not believe he was Rukia's lawyer so the man had to call the devil herself to affirm he was who he was .

Looking up at the ceiling at the tasteful chandelier that decorated the bright cheery hall he took in a deep breath to try to ease the knots where building on top of each other as he continued to wait . He was normally an extremely patient man but he could feel his blood pressure rise as the door man conversed at a glacial place with Yoruichi because he just couldn't belief that Byakuya was a lawyer from Shinhoin industries here for Rukia. Hell the man was surprised that there was a man in the lobby looking for Rukia at all let alone a high powered lawyer .Though this thought was not registering on the top of his thought process at the moment. What was , was that the man had chuckled and told that damn woman she must pay her pages very well to send them on personal errands looking like Byakuya did.

HE WAS NOT A FUCKING PAGE BOY! He was Byakuya Kuchiki! and he would not be reduced to such a menial title ! but he was not about to let his mouth get the better of him so he closed it when the thought ran through his head that if he pissed this man off he would not be able to get up to see Miss Yamamoto at all in spite of whatever Yoruichi told him . So instead of a sharp demeaning speech that he had conjured up through the tedious wait he settled for tapping the sole of his favorite pair of Prada wing tips on the marble floor . However now he wasn't sure if he was going to were a hole in the sole of his shoe or crack the marble first as he felt his thigh muscles contract and retract with more force than necessary due to his ever growing impatience .

The conversation continued on for what seemed like hours before the man hung up the phone with an apologetic smile and another good natured chuckle.

Shaking his head in amazement the man let out one last chuckle "That woman can talk your ear off if you let her cant she"

'Yes ' Byakuya thought acidicly "_That_ woman can really talk" Putting on a tightlipped smile he nodded slightly in acknowledgement "She can, but" his words chilled a little " Did we get the matter at hand settled that I am who I say I am not here to do any harm to Miss Yamamoto"

The doorman's eye widened slightly at Byakuya's cold tone.

"I apologize sir it's just that the little miss does not have many visitors especially of the male persuasion." The door mans smile softened and turned almost fatherly. "she is such a sweet girl that if anything where to happen to her due to my negligence I would not be able to live with myself"

Byakuya could understand that concern perfectly so the man redeemed himself slightly

"Shall I buzz you up now?" The man went to pick up the phone again.

With a sharp shake of his head Byakuya frown deeply "That will not be necessary _she is expecting me " _he really wanted to ground that point In

Paling slightly at Byakuya's chilly if not threatening air he nodded "She is on floor seventeen. . . . "

Byakuya cut him off shortly " Flat 1702" he finish shortly. Picking up his Louis Vuitton brief case he made his way to the elevator and pressed seventeen and waited. Looking up at the floor marker he watched the elevator drift down fourteen , thirteen , twelve , eleven. . eleven. . eleven. .eleven. The damn lift was not moving any further down than eleven.

"For the love of god" he muttered . Setting the case at his feet he continued to watched the lift rote at floor eleven and wonder if he would ever get up to see Rukia.

After another battle with eternity the lift started to move again. His shoulders slowly started to relax until the offending yellow light stop at five . Unable to fight the annoyance he wondered exactly how long the lift would stay at this floor because for the love of god it didn't even take this much time to have a quickie between floors and believe him he knew this first hand.

By some grace the lift started to descend floors again finally letting out a loud unpleasant DING! The door slowly rolled open and there stood two middle aged woman with no sense of proper style . Perhaps if you were seventeen it would be stylish wearing BEBE track suits two sizes to small but the offending florescent colors were far from appropriate for grown woman . The world truly did baffle him some day's not because these women were clearly offensive to the eyes but they carried two small dog's or over sized rats in Byakuya's opinion. In two over sized Burberry totes , well at least that what it looked like to him. He really didn't know the proper term for the monstrosities the women carried the rats in.

And again it seemed like nothing in this building was in a hurry to get anywhere because the two middle aged woman stood there gaping at him with big overly made up eye's.

This building was going to be the death of him because if they didn't move he was going to say something incredibly mean . So instead he practice containment gritting his teeth he counted backward ,slowly, from ten then cleared his throat with a cough giving the same tight lipped smile he offered the door man . The woman on the left with the too bright pink eye makeup let her tarantula . . he meant mascara covered eyes flap flirtatiously. She opened her mouth but he was not going to let either of these woman get a word in edge wise or he would be on the ground floor all bloody day.

Putting on his most charming smile he took a step forward "Would you two kind ladies happen to know which floor Miss Yamamoto would reside in?"

The change is atmosphere was palpable and almost made him laugh . The pink woman looked over to the teal on with a slightly curled lip.

"Do you know who he is talking about Akira."

Her nasally voice almost made Byakuya cringe

The other woman flipped her overly processed bleach blond extension tangled hair over her shoulder with the same foul attitude.

"Haven't a clue."

The other woman snipped.

On some level he was almost relived Rukia had no association with these monstrosities but again with the same charming smile he now had permanently plastered onto his face he shrugged and step forward into the lift effectively pushing them out gracefully. "Then I must follow the directions my dear sweet one wrote down."

If it was Possible the offended looks he was getting from the two hags only got worse as he stepped forward pushing his way subtly into their personal space causing them both to step out of the lift completely .

With a true smile on his face he pressed the button to floor seventeen and actually grinned as the door shut in the faces of the two woman . Now here was hoping that no one else was going to get on the lift and he would have a straight shot to seventeen.

XoooXoooXoooXooXooXooXooX

Rukia could hear the door rattling not so much rattling but a steady, loud , rhythmic thud .it had started out soft as a slow a gentle thump but that didn't last long, as the tempo increased she started to laugh. It had been so long since she had felt this light headed giddy feeling of absolute freedom. She felt light like she weight absolutely nothing despite the six inch heels that were dangling from her toe's that usually tended to be clumsy and cumbersome in this position ( not that she had been in this position in oh, say ,years. . . ), but the way his hands dug in to her ass proved to her that he had no problem keeping her close to him and back against the wall. For all she knew at the moment she was being held in the place by V that their bodies were creating at . There was no lose of connection for adjustments just the steady pistoning of two bodies melting together and god she wanted more as much as she could get .

The dirty girl in her came out as she wrapped her thighs tightly around his waist pulling him deeper into her giving her the satisfaction of a deep growl that was admitted from the depths of in his chest . With the change in position he broke their connection for a brief moment lifting her up then slamming her hips down hard over him causing her to throw her head back violently thumping it against the wall. With a muffled moan she scored her nails down his back and squeezed her eyes shut tighter gritting her teeth to keep herself from screaming his name .

"Oh no doll face." The deep timber of the man's voice sent shivers down her spine "I want to hear that sweet little voice of yours."

Her heart rate pounded in her ears with the rhythm of each thrust. Steadying her against the wall he reach one hand between them and slowly started to massage her clit in delicious circles. Showing her no mercy he slowed their pace without decreasing the pressure of his thumb. Trembling with each caress she let out a frustrated pant she couldn't handle slow right now , she didn't want slow but no amount of wriggling on her behalf was getting him to change his sadistic pace .

The deep timber of his chuckle rolled through her entire body and the small vibrations made her feel like she was losing her mind .between the slow deep thrusts and the steady pressure of this thumb it was just a barrage of sensation.

"I.. . " the blood pounded through her ears as his thumb eased into a slow agonizing pace "I want. . " impatiently she pressed her core into his thumb seeking more of his ministrations trying to regain the pressure that was there before "I need. . " she could feel the desperation growing in her breathy voice as her need for release increased .

"Please. . " her voice came out in a forgine whimper. She felt like crying as his thick hard length slowly slipped in and out of her at an luxurious pace that was driving her out of her mind.

"Please what Rukia. . " his breath was close to ear the warm perspiration on her neck sending chills down her spine.

The ruff pad of his thumb was causing a maddening amount of friction and sensation as his ministrations alternated in pace . Her clit felt like it was throbbing with each gentle circle . Thoughts where no longer forming only sensations . . . It had been so long.

"Oh god please." She was begging now begging for a release . Her entire body was alive her breath coming out in panting gasps. He was talking but she couldn't hear anything for the exception of the rush of blood pound through her ears . Her heart felt like it was going to pound out of her chest it was beating so hard.

"Open your eye's" it was a command not a request and to this point she had not realized that her eyes had infact been squeezed tightly shut. "I want you to watch me make you come."

Opening her eyes slowly she saw Byakuya Kuchiki's storm cloud grey eyes staring back into her and then panic set in

"holy shi…"

Before she could finish that thought her eyes flew open as the buzzer to her door went off. Bolting up right in bed she frantically felt around to prove she was in fact in her own bed . with trembling hands she looked around her room for a long moment letting the gravity of the clearly delusional dream set in and her heart settle back to a normal pace .

"I'm losing my…." Bzzzzz the buzzer rang loudly again. " mind" with a deep breath and a dejected sigh she slipped out of bed. Scrounging around on the floor she searched for a tank top and shorts because it would only be Nanao at the door . She was the only one who came to her apartment and the only one who would ring the buzzer THAT many times . The door buzzed again as she grabbed a pair of tinny black boy shorts she didn't think Nanao would appreciate her answering the door naked no matter how good of friends they were.

Bzzzzed.

Rukia hopped out of her room with her tank top in her teeth trying to scramble into the miniscule shots . Succeeding in getting one leg in she tripped over a stray high heal that had been left in the hall and proceeded to fumble into the living room and bang her shin into the coffee table sending herself flying face first into her over stuff couch and everything else that was on delicate glass table all over the floor around it.

"Ahhg!" the scream was muffled into the pillows as she glared at the door in her contorted position. Quickly though not gracefully she rectified herself from the couch and shove the over leg into the shorts.

The door Bzzed again "Keep your shirt on Ise!" She growled loud enough she was sure her neighbors across the hall could hear her

Shimmying into the shorts she looked around trying to locate where her shirt had gotten launched to. Shuffling through the mess of paperwork and cloths on the floor around the table she located her pale pink shirt that was now by the far end of the couch. stuffing one arm in and pulling it half way on she made her way closer to the door . This really wasn't turning out to be her day . Looking down at the end table next to the door she grabbed a hair tie that had been left there as an afterthought and stuffed her other arm in pulling the shirt haphazardly over her. Using the hair band to throw her hair up into a messy lopsided pony tail she sighed softly , then jumped out of her skin and the door made a loud Buzzing noise again. Rolling her eyes and shaking her head she went to open the door.

"Oh for the love of god ise I heard. . . ."

The door opened fully and Rukia stopped dead in her tracks. That wasn't Nanao standing in her front door way. Unless the woman had grown six or so plus inches and turned into man.

Opening and closing her mouth . Then opening and closing it again she couldn't think of the words to say as Byakuya kuchiki's cool somewhat amused dark eyes looked down at her.

"Oh god." She could feel the blush rising up her cheeks she was pretty sure the tips of her ears where red by now. Letting out a nervous laugh she nibbled her lower lip in pure mortification.

"Your not Ise." Another bubble of nervous laugher escaped her lips only causing the man's lips to turn up slightly into what could be the start of a smile

"No I am not."

By the grace of god he was not laughing at her much to Rukia's relief but he wasn't able to keep his obvious amusement to himself .

Closing her eyes again Rukia felt totally mortified and more than a little dorky "Ahhh." She let out the soft sound and opened her eyes again . " I am so sorry."

This time a deep chuckle escaped them mans more than amused lips . "It is quiet alright but ," He looked backed into the hall then to her again. "May I please come."

Blushing profusely Rukia could palm her forehead due to her totally blond behavior. Letting out a nervous chuckle she nodded her head stepping to the side now deeply regretting not taking the time to clean up her messy living room. "Please come in." Watching the man move gracefully into her house she let out a deep sigh of resignation as she closed the door at least from what she could tell there were no redbull can's or coffee mugs laying around or at least she hoped there weren't that would just be icing on her already embarrassing cake .

Turing back to face the man and the messy living room she cringed not wanting to see a look of total disgust on the man's face . However instead of disgust she was a small glint of amusement across his face as he stood in the entry way waiting for him to lead him further into the house.

"Hard at work?" his lips turned into a slight smile

"What makes you say that?" Her words came out a little dryer than she intended but it was too late now to take them back.

With out missing a bead Byakuya shrugged " I don't know it could be the pile of coffee cups in the sink or the papers scattered around , but something tells me you haven't slept in days ." setting his briefcase at his feet he made a dismissive hand gesture . " I could be completely wrong."

Walking further into the hall she tried her hardest to block his view of her not so spotless kitchen she couldn't help but cringe at her rudeness. " I am so sorry for my behavior I'm not the most graceful person when I wake up." She really hoped that would explain her behavior but she was going to put her foot in her mouth again "But if I may ask what are you doing here?" The words sounded rude to her but she couldn't help it she really had no idea why he was standing in her foyer or how he even found her apartment for that matter.

Giving her an queer look he gestured to his briefcase "Yoruichi told me you were expecting me . She said you needed my help looking over some documents but you were too busy to come into the office so you wanted to meet here."

This was news to Rukia she had no recollection of this conversation but not wanting to further her moronic status she Ahhed like she just remembered the conversation . " Ah yes." She really hoped that sounded somewhat convincing. " I remember now. Again I'm sorry it's been." She looked around "A long week "

'_Fantastic_' she thought to herself she was starting to repeat herself ' _Way to go Yamamoto make yourself look like a complete ass in front of this overly gorgeous man_.' And with that none to sobering thought she hoped to god a blush wasn't creeping up her cheeks as pieces of her dreamed made there reappearance

**Again I know this was a painfully short chap but please , please , please read and review I want to know If I should continue this or not . and thank you for reading **


	12. Chapter 12

Okay let me just start this little note with an im sorry . This year has been completely nuts for me . I was in fact getting married what would have been Dec 1st and a few months before the wedding my world imploded when the groom called the wedding off after a small altercation . So I spent the first half of my year planning a wedding and the third quarter dismantling it . ( I have a wedding dress for sale if anyone is interested)

Now on to my stories they are not discontinued a slight hiatus maybe it's been so long since I have written anything im just trying to get the hang of things again,

so please bear with me

I might even put up some none mushy lovy dovy stuff only because I am still a little bitter , and if you guys could support me in reading and reviewing those too I would greatly appreciate it .

**Changing of the Guard** is a story that I am going to start to update regularly basically because I love that story it's my baby

**We All Want the Same Thing** may take me alittle longer to get back into

And as for **What Dreams May Come** well you know I up that when inspiration hits, but if anyone is interested in me putting up another chap send me a PM

Thank you guys so much for the support you have given in my writing

blackbubbledancer


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